Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way 'girls who write their pain on their bodies' scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a 'semifamous' local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her-who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves-Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she 'like-likes' but who had pined for Ellis instead. Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. Though skin is vital to the story, modern racial categories do not seem to exist.Ĭast’s fans should find much to be pleased with in this new venture.Īfter surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself. While Cast is a bit heavy-handed spelling it out for readers, at its core this is a story about embracing and finding strength in difference. Dead Eye’s story is far more disturbing, portending a darkness that will become more prevalent in future installments. Readers will enjoy watching these two characters, who share a palpable chemistry, come into their own. The intersection of Mari’s and Nik’s stories dominates the hefty novel. In this series kickoff, Cast weaves together the stories of Mari, Nik, and Dead Eye, offering readers a new fantasy world steeped in magic that’s grounded by a hodgepodge of tropes ranging from Greek mythology to New Age mysticism.

Dead Eye, a 21-year-old mutant Skin Stealer, is a rebel, a self-proclaimed God with gruesome vision for the future of his people. Twenty-three-year-old blond, pale-skinned Nik, who hails from a rival people known for enslaving Mari’s, should become Sun Priest of the Tribe when his father retires, but he has yet to be chosen as a Companion by a canine. The lives of three disparate young people collide in this post-apocalyptic fantasy.Įighteen-year-old Mari should succeed her mother as the healer of the matriarchal Earth Walkers but for her father’s blood that also courses through her veins, a secret that the blonde, pale-skinned girl and her dark-skinned mother go to great lengths to conceal.

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