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Reviewed by:
  • Plus One by Elizabeth Fama
  • Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor
Fama, Elizabeth. Plus One. Farrar, 2014. [384p]. Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-374-36007-8 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-374-36008-5 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys    Ad Gr. 7–10.

In Fama’s alternative world, the population of the United States has been divided into Rays, people who work during the daytime, and Smudges, people who inhabit the night, in order to keep overcrowding in check and the workforce in line. Seventeen-year-old Sol Le Coeur is keenly aware of the daily discrimination faced by Smudges, but she’s especially upset that authorities will not even allow her beloved Poppu, her grandfather, to see Sol’s newborn niece, a Ray, before he dies. Sol’s plan to fake an injury and gain admittance into the hospital to then kidnap the baby goes terribly awry when she meets D’Arcy Benoit, the handsome medical apprentice who gets her thrown in jail. Then D’Arcy, having a change of heart, busts her out of prison, and the two find themselves caught in an elaborate conspiracy involving undisclosed experimentation on half the population, illegal computer programming, and a brewing rebellion. All the elements of dystopian romance are here but they never quite jell: the divided world is not distinctly drawn, with the reasons given for the daytime/nighttime regulations unconvincing; D’Arcy’s actions are more motivated by plot necessity than by his actual character; and the increasingly complicated nature of the illegal experiments and government authorities becomes confusing. Sol, however, makes an intriguing heroine, someone who is driven by grief and desperation and who is as strong as she is irrational, and her gutsy determination to help the people she loves, whatever the cost, will stoke a fire under even the most passive of readers. Her romance with D’Arcy is sweet and tender, and readers will be glad to see Sol get a bit of sunny happiness before a rather dark conclusion hints at a sequel. [End Page 403]

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