The Q by Amy Tintera

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Q by Amy Tintera Natalie Berglind Tintera, Amy The Q. Crown, 2022 [352p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593486177 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593486191 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 Maisie Rojas and Lennon Pierce are the children of high expectations in their respective worlds. Lennon is the son of a U.S. presidential candidate, and Maisie is the daughter of a deceased, brutal gang leader in the Q, a quarantine zone put up twenty years ago in the now-seceded Austin, Texas, to stop the spread of a pandemic. The Q is now a turf war with power plays, which makes Lennon being kidnapped by his father’s opponents and parachuted into the middle of it a deadly opportunity for those within to gain some leverage with the outside world. A temporary vaccine prevents Lennon from catching the virus for only 72 hours, and Maisie has that long to get him through the north of the Q run by rival groups—and past her own people scrambling to become leader. What starts off as a promising dystopian premise frequently becomes wishy-washy in its logic and vague on details concerning medical science and restrictions within the Q, and the gang war dynamics are underdeveloped. Readers who can suspend their disbelief beyond these disconnects are still in for an action-packed adventure with a dash of romance, and there is clearly a vicarious triumph here from the empowerment that comes with reading about kids in a pandemic who can actually do something about it. Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois