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Home > Categories > Books > Young Adult > Edge of Light #1 - New Dawning review
We meet Merel, a girl living on a futuristic island in the middle of a sea. Many years have past since the community survived the floods and the severe heat that has forced their forbears to shadow their world. They live in twilight and their year is punctuated by traditions that address the need to restrict their population - drastic traditions that are called the truth.
We come to realise this is set in a future world that might be New Zealand.
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Review by: mizim (Miriam)
Dated: 17th of September, 2023
Merel lives in a world where global warming had devastating effects and now live in a little village, huddled by the sea and in complete darkness thanks to the covers that cover this little village. Merel grows up knowing that this and the few people on the mainland are all the people that are left in the world. Where she lives, everyone has a job they are given and expected to do for life, when you reach a certain age you are sent off in a rickety boat (it is expected that no one survives but population control is needed) and where everything is just as it should be. Of course, nothing can ever stay the same, and soon some folks are talking in hushed tones and claims of everyone being lied to start to be spoken.
What I really liked is that this story is set in New Zealand, or at least, what is left of NZ. Merel is an easy character to follow along with as the threads of her simple life begin to unravel. The covers are opened, after much discussion, for just half an hour, but even this is enough to have her breaking the rules and discovering something a little off. I enjoyed the world building, as we have this village in near darkness but hints that things aren't as they seem and questions about what the mainland is like, how the covers work and more. I liked that you know this is set in NZ by the names of streets and other little names along the way. This is the first book in a trilogy and I really am looking forward to what comes next.
This was a well written story that gives you enough in book one that you want to finish it, with enough unanswered questions that you know the next book is going to give you so much more.
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