Nicola Penfold

7/10, looking back I enjoyed this one when I first read this but I'm not sure if it would hold up anymore considering that now I see a lot of flaws within this British middle grade dystopian novel, I'd definitely still consider this an enjoyable read though so there's that. It begins with a little backstory about humans contributing to climate change when suddenly a group called the ReWilders made a disease and now the main characters Juniper and Bear live in a walled city with no plants, I already have a problem with this since the worldbuilding is a bit vague; it left me with some unanswered questions like how did the ReWilders make the disease, why are people living in walled towns with no plants, and how do they even survive, without plants there's no breathable air so that doesn't make sense unless they have some oxygen generator somewhere but I believe it was never mentioned. These types of books are very common but somehow very few are aimed at middle grade readers; the only other ones I know of are The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera and Where the River Runs Gold by Sita Brahmachari but that underwhelmed me, the first book does seem promising. Anyways, once Juniper and Bear find out about a world outside the city that has plants they set off alone to escape it which takes up most of the book and I got to see some abandoned structures but in the end they meet their parents who are living in a country town and this wraps the book up pretty well; I would've liked it if the writing, worldbuilding and characters were a bit deeper.… (más)