The Artful by Wilbert Stanton
(Shadows of the City #1)
Published by: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication date: May 27th 2014
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult
Synopsis:
New York City, 2025: Everything is changed. The city that never sleeps is now a land of death and decay. A rampant virus has taken over and the survivors have become carriers, quarantined from the rest of the world.
Twist and Dodger grew up in the streets, the sewers and underground tunnels – their playground. They aren’t heroes. They just like attention; and stealing meds from the rich and giving them to the poor is their golden ticket.
On their latest raid, they unknowingly steal a cure that puts them square between the ailing Emperor of Manhattan and the war hungry Governor of Brooklyn and forces them on a quest into the darkest shadows of their putrefying world.
3 Stars
The names the author chose for his characters are definitely very fitting. The story takes place where a plague has killed half the population and left others with a horrible reaction to the sun (no vampires promise). As with most dystopian novels, there are the rich and ignorant and the very poor, very clever. Twist and Dodger run a gang and steal from the mostly drugged out rich who live in towers and are never in the sun. They provide the stolen supplies, mostly medications to those in need. One day, they run into a gal who claims to be a companion to rich clients. She ends up joining them on their journey to get meds to heal Dodger and other various folks. The rich folks have caught up to them, given Dodger something nasty, and there are rumors and evidence swirling around that the story fed to the population about the plague might not be so true.
This was not a bad book, an awesome book, or really anything really on the extreme side of negative or positive rating. Details bogged it down and the writing needs to be a bit more polished and flow better. The story would flow well with action and events, then pages and pages of details that were unnecessary would slow the story down. But the story is still an interesting one, world building interesting, and the characters were unique and distinct from one another. It was an okay young adult read, and I would look for future works from the author as he matures.
Wilbert Stanton was born and raised in New York City. From an early age, Wilbert decided he would either write books or take over the world; everything else was just a precursor to his end game.
Along the way, he has studied Psychology, English, and Computer Science. He’s held jobs in a wide range of fields and met people from all walks of life. Wilbert is constantly learning and growing as a person, in order to solidify his dreams.
In the end world domination was a bit tedious, so he decided to focus on writing books.Author links:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
