This won’t go down as one of this talented author’s better works. This lack of depth extends to the protagonist though readers will appreciate Sonya’s journey to self-awareness, her lack of interiority makes her difficult to invest in. The worldbuilding is fascinating, but Roth only scratches the surface, with more time spent developing Sonya’s life in prison than exploring the outside world or the ramifications of using Insight. As Sonya searches, she struggles to navigate the much-changed, post-Delegation world and, as her family’s dark past comes to light, she’s forced to reckon with the repercussions of her parents’ actions and confront her own shifting morals. Ten years after the fall of the Delegation, Sonya Kantor, a former poster girl for the regime who’s been imprisoned for the role she played in its propaganda machine, is given the opportunity to earn her freedom by locating a missing girl, Grace, who was stolen from her parents by the Delegation. The Delegation ruled the Seattle-Portland-South Vancouver megalopolis with an iron fist, keeping its citizens under constant surveillance using Insight, an ocular implant that tracks the wearer’s every action. (Feb.After the collapse of a tyrannical government, a woman’s search for a missing girl leads her to uncover a chilling family secret in this sluggish dystopian mystery from bestseller Roth ( Chosen Ones). This powerful tale of reproductive oppression is sure to wow. But when murder blights their lives again, will Kreon respect the right of Antigone’s beloved dead to be reborn? The plot preserves the shape of the original without ever losing the capacity to surprise and, more importantly, prod reflection and recognition. Though believed to be tainted, Antigone and her sister Ismene can still serve as such vessels. Senior editor Lindsey Hall signed three novellas with 1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth, the first of which is Arch-Conspirator, a science fiction retelling of Antigone. Souls can be embodied only by mixing the purified genes of the dead, who are then reborn via the surrogacy of the living. The siblings are ostracized because they were naturally conceived and thus believed to be soulless.

Not only is it politically expedient for Kreon to keep his dead rival’s children alive, it’s necessary-because this is a postapocalyptic scenario: all genes are compromised, and every “viable womb” is precious to the state. Antigone and her siblings are given refuge by Kreon, who overthrew their father’s government. Bestseller Roth, best known for the YA Divergent series, turns from trilogy sprawl to the confines of novella and expertly meets the demands of the form, offering just enough worldbuilding and keeping a tight focus on her well-drawn characters’ difficult choices. Readers who are tapped out on The Handmaid’s Tale as a parable for the current cultural moment will celebrate this taut, defiant reenvisioning of Sophocles’s Antigone, which brilliantly probes many of the same themes.

Veronica roth new book 2022