When
I first started Kat Falls’s book, Inhuman,
I couldn’t get the futuristic, post-apocalyptic vibe out of my head. In the
book, a virus that mutates the human population into savage cannibals causes a
seven hundred foot wall to be erected in order to separate the infected from
the non-infected. Reminiscent of The
Walking Dead and Game of Throne
series, Falls takes familiar elements and makes them her own with her
descriptions of two isolated societes who have been faced with the “Ferae
Naturae” virus in her latest series.
Imagine
a society obsessed with cleanliness: everyone is constantly sanitizing their
hands, there is little physical contact to avoid germs, and kids go to school
online to, well, avoid spreading those germs. Okay, that’s not too far off from
the society we know now, but imagine if we became this way because a virus had
turned half the population into cannibalistic human-animal hybrids. That’s the
society that Delany Park McEvoy comes from on the western side of the wall.
Thrown into the zone just east of the Mississippi, she aims to find her father
and send him on a secret mission. We can see through her eyes what the virus
has done.
What
I found most interesting about this book was the manifestation of the Ferae
virus. Falls does a wonderful job producing vivid imagery of the various
human-animal hybrids and the animal-animal hybrids and the way that they behave
and interact. The rules for the virus are both believable and stable. And the
creatures that Falls creates and describes in the Kingdom of Chicago (yes,
Chicago has a king) are simultaneously beautiful and frightening.
Now
add, on top of these fantastical creatures, a love triangle and a journey of
self-discovery. Delaney learns more about herself, her father, and other
members of the society, making her decisions more and more difficult and loaded
with consequences for all involved.
Inhuman is an
adventurous and exciting tale from beginning to end with vivid imagery and a
creative and interesting cast of characters that are presented through a
well-constructed plot. I would recommend it to any young adult or science
fiction fan and give it a 4.5 star rating. As it is the first of the trilogy, I
am eagerly awaiting the next installment!
By: Sarina Clement
