Awards-

• Best Fiction for Young Adults
  Young Adult Library Services Association
• Teen's Top Ten
  Young Adult Library Services Association

Excerpts-

• From the cover LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

   

  REPUBLIC OF AMERICA

  POPULATION: 20,174,282

  PART ONE

  THE BOY

  WHO WALKS IN THE LIGHT

  MY MOTHER THINKS I’M DEAD.

  Obviously I’m not dead, but it’s safer for her to think so.

  At least twice a month, I see my Wanted poster flashed on the JumboTrons scattered throughout downtown Los Angeles. It looks out of place up there. Most of the pictures on the screens are of happy things: smiling children standing under a bright blue sky, tourists posing before the Golden Gate Ruins, Republic commercials in neon colors. There’s also anti-Colonies propaganda. “The Colonies want our land,” the ads declare. “They want what they don’t have. Don’t let them conquer your homes! Support the cause!”

  Then there’s my criminal report. It lights up the JumboTrons in all its multicolored glory:

  WANTED BY THE REPUBLIC

  FILE NO: 462178-3233 “DAY”

  ——————————————————-

  WANTED FOR ASSAULT, ARSON, THEFT, DESTRUCTION OF MILITARY PROPERTY, AND HINDERING THE WAR EFFORT 200,000 REPUBLIC NOTES FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO ARREST

  They always have a different photo running alongside the report. One time it was a boy with glasses and a head full of thick copper curls. Another time it was a boy with black eyes and no hair at all. Sometimes I’m black, sometimes white, sometimes olive or brown or yellow or red or whatever else they can think of.

  In other words, the Republic has no idea what I look like. They don’t seem to know much of anything about me, except that I’m young and that when they run my fingerprints they don’t find a match in their databases. That’s why they hate me, why I’m not the most dangerous criminal in the country, but the most wanted. I make them look bad.

  It’s early evening, but it’s already pitch-black outside, and the JumboTrons’ reflections are visible in the street’s puddles. I sit on a crumbling window ledge three stories up, hidden from view behind rusted steel beams. This used to be an apartment complex, but it’s fallen into disrepair. Broken lanterns and glass shards litter the floor of this room, and paint is peeling from every wall. In one corner, an old portrait of the Elector Primo lies faceup on the ground. I wonder who used to live here—no one’s cracked enough to let their portrait of the Elector sit discarded on the floor like that.

  My hair, as usual, is tucked inside an old newsboy cap. My eyes are fixed on the small one-story house across the road. My hands fiddle with the pendant tied around my neck.

  Tess leans against the room’s other window, watching me closely. I’m restless tonight and, as always, she can sense it.

  The plague has hit the Lake sector hard. In the glow of the JumboTrons, Tess and I can see the soldiers at the end of the street as they inspect each home, their black capes shiny and worn loose in the heat. Each of them wears a gas mask. Sometimes when they emerge, they mark a house by painting a big red X on the front door. No one enters or leaves the home after that—at least, not when anyone’s looking.

  “Still don’t see them?” Tess whispers. Shadows conceal her expression.

  In an attempt to distract myself, I’m piecing together a makeshift slingshot out of old PVC pipes. “They haven’t eaten dinner. They haven’t sat down by the table in hours.” I shift and stretch out my bad knee.

  “Maybe they’re not home?”

  I...

About the Author-

• New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu (www.marielu.org) graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one boyfriend, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.

Reviews-

• In this dystopian story, two teens who lead very different lives find themselves united in their quest for truth. The two narrators alternate sections of text from the point of view of each character. June, narrated by Mariel Stern, is a military prodigy from a rich sector, and Day, narrated by Steven Kaplan, is a street criminal on the run. As Day, Kaplan reads in a calm, even voice, speeding his reading when the action gets more intense. Stern uses a young, higher-pitched voice for June and deep, stern tones for the military personnel that surround her. The narrators remind listeners that the characters are 15 years old by the way they pitch their voices, even when June and Day's adventures make them seem much older. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
• 

  Starred review from October 10, 2011
  Lu’s debut is a stunner. Weaving the strands of SF dystopia, police procedural, and coming-of-age—with touches of superhero and wild frontier traditions—she fashions a narrative in which the action is kinetic and the emotional development is beautifully paced. June, a prodigy from the elite class of the disintegrating Republic, is being groomed for a military career when her brother, a captain, is murdered. June is quickly drafted into the team tracking his accused killer, a spectral and maddeningly persistent outlaw known as Day. June’s life has been shaped by intellect, and to be driven by an emotion as ungovernable as grief makes her vulnerable in painful, dangerous ways. Day has known grief all of his life, but is no more immune to it than June is. The chase unfolds against a plague-infested Los Angeles of Gotham-like grit that Lu conjures with every nuance of smell, sound, and sight. First in a series, this story is utterly satisfying in its own right and raises hopes high for the sequels to come. Ages 12–up.

Title Information+

• Publisher

  Books on Tape

• OverDrive Listen

  Release date:

Digital Rights Information+