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Formats
Ebook Details
  • 11/2024
  • 9798218495817 B0DG71BNWQ
  • 251 pages
  • $4.99
D.N. Moore
Author
The Boy Who Learned to Live
D.N. Moore, author
Seventeen-year-old Oliver Mc’Neil has never been outside. Like everyone else in the Fifth City in the year 2085, he and his mother live in an apartment where the air and water are sterile, their food is couriered to them, and all their activities—work, school, exercise, entertainment—are done indoors on sims, machines that simulate life using computer monitors, virtual reality headsets, and holograms. When Oliver wakes up in the middle of the woods drugged and delirious, he has no idea how he got there, but he is certain it is a death sentence. He is taken in by the rugged and beautiful Autumn, whose family is loud, rambunctious, and three children over the legal birth limit. They are outlaws, living with thousands of others in a network of underground caves, where modern technology is forbidden and secrecy is paramount. Oliver must learn to survive in a land that is wild and dangerous, while battling voices in his head that haunt him day and night. He doesn’t know if the hallucinations are due to withdrawals from the mind-numbing medication he has taken every day of his life, or if he truly is the monster he appears to be. One thing he is certain of: he will do whatever it takes to protect Autumn, the girl who saved his life. Cave sentries begin to go missing, leading to a series of disasters and growing suspicion about Oliver's appearance in the caves. Now his choices will either save or endanger his friends. Will he ever be able to trust himself in this strange new life?
Reviews
Oliver Mc’Neil is a typical teen in 2085: he eats his prescribed food and medication, completes daily tasks through simulations, and never leaves his house—until he wakes up tangled in barbed wire, being rescued by Autumn, a serious red-headed girl living in the woods. Their lifestyles are a study in contrasts—Autumn and her family live off the land, untraced by outsiders, while Oliver’s sterile existence leaves him “clutching at reality but feeling nothing but emptiness”—but that doesn’t stop their immediate connection. As Autumn helps Oliver adjust to surviving outside the city, he slowly comes to realize his presence may put Autumn—and the new lifestyle he’s starting to treasure—at risk.

Moore's coming-of-age dystopian tale (after Ballad of the Dead) has many intriguing ideas at its core, and Oliver's found family is incredibly charming, each playing their own part as they forage, hide, and, above all, value the land that supports them. Their motto—“we need everyone to take care of themselves”—plays out in the background as Oliver learns to work within their team while coming to grips with the pseudo-reality he’s been living back home. Moore’s depiction of the cave-cities Autumn and her family navigate—with their own printing press, markets, and self-sufficient processes—is brilliantly lifelike, a stark contrast to Oliver’s world, where the only available news is propaganda and fear keeps everyone locked inside their houses.

The story’s action ratchets up when the government Autumn and co. have been avoiding for years comes knocking, prompting Moore’s not-so-subtle message on the dangers of bureaucratic oversight. As Oliver’s resurfacing memories torment him with worries about his true nature—and Autumn’s history emerges bit by bit—the two are thrust into a heady battle of survival, where reality is uncertain and “everyone deserves a chance to put their old life behind them and start again.”

Takeaway: Intense dystopian tale pitting teens against an intrusive, near-future government.

Comparable Titles: London Shah’s The Light at the Bottom of the World, Michael Grant’s Gone.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Kirkus Reviews

“Moore delivers enthralling set pieces… the entire cast is outstanding… a wholly absorbing, character-driven dystopian tale.”

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 11/2024
  • 9798218495817 B0DG71BNWQ
  • 251 pages
  • $4.99
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