Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz (review)

In the seedy hustle and bustle of post-apocalyptic New Vegas, sixteen-year-old Natasha Ketsal finds a perfect hiding spot, dealing blackjack to big rollers while keeping her head down and her Mark—the flame-shaped one that marks her as a magic-wielder—covered. The voice in her head, however, insists that she find her way to the Blue, a mythical paradise where the sun still shines and plants still grow, the supposed salvation for anyone looking to escape the frozen, toxic wasteland the rest of the world has become. She therefore hires Wes, at nineteen already a seasoned former soldier for the RSA (the Remaining States of America), and his crew of mercenaries to take her safely through Garbage Country and across the poisonous sludge that was once the ocean to the rumored location of the door to the Blue. The vivid descriptions of a world gone awry and the threat of an all-watching government are familiar dystopic elements, but the appearances of sea monsters, the Fair Folk, and magical dwarves are a bit more surprising. The resulting mash-up of tropes gives this plenty of cross-genre appeal, and the fantasy element is carefully interwoven, with subtle clues hinting at the true identity of the voice Nat hears inside her head. Nat and Wes, too, are more complex than they initially appear to be; their individual searches for redemption for past wrongdoings are moving, particularly when they find forgiveness in each other. The ending gets a bit chaotic with an all-out dragon vs. military fight, but a new quest points towards a sequel; readers will want to strap on their snowshoes to tag along.