Title: Plus One Author: Elizabeth Fama
Published: April 8, 2014
Genre(s): Science Fiction
Page Count: 373
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Sol Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller in an America rigidly divided between people who wake, live, and work during the hours of darkness and those known as Rays, who live and work during daylight. Impulsive, passionate, and brave, Sol concocts a plan to kidnap her newborn niece—a Ray—in order to bring the baby to visit her dying grandfather. Sol's violation of the day/night curfew is already a serious crime, but when her kidnap attempt goes awry, she stumbles on a government conspiracy to manipulate the Smudge population. Sol escapes the authorities with an unexpected ally: a Ray who gets in her way, a boy she might have hated if fate hadn't forced them on the run together—a boy the world now tells her she can't love.
I am officially a fan of Elizabeth Fama, after reading two of her books. And this latest novel is by far one of the best 2014 releases I’ve read. Plus One is an action-packed dystopian thriller romance adventure with an amazing protagonist and a storyline that grips readers and pulls them on a different sort of journey. I seriously really loved this book.
Things start of somewhat abruptly, as Fama tosses readers headfirst into the dystopian society Sol lives in. People are divided into two groups, Smudges and Rays, who can only be out and about during the night or day, respectively. This division came about during the flu epidemic in 1918 and seemed to stick. Sol, then, is a Smudge, and Plus One opens with her planning to abduct her newborn niece (a Ray) from the hospital so her dying grandfather will be able to see his great-granddaughter before he passes.
Of course, literally nothing goes according to plan. So instead, Sol is on the run with a kidnapped baby and a nerdy medical apprentice named D’Arcy. The story then twists and weaves itself into a complex thriller with a healthy dose of very adorable romance.
Firstly, I love Sol. She’s not the type of person I could see myself getting along with in the real world, but Fama totally sold her character. Sol is fiesty, impetuous, hot-tempered, abrasive, rude, and pushy. She doesn’t think things through, she doesn’t filter her speech, she doesn’t hold back her temper. She is 100% Sol, 100% of the time. I loved it. She was such a real character for me, and I think that she contrasted somewhat with the other female characters I’ve been reading lately.
Just like Sol, Plus One’s plot is quick-moving and bold. The pacing is perfect for the content of the story, and I loved the constant motion and activity present. Sol and D’Arcy had some downtime, but for the most part it was go-go-go, which fit very well with everything going on. This is seriously not the kind of book that can afford to lag.
World-building was kept to a minimum, for the most part, in favor of story. And while normally I get frustrated by dystopians that don’t explain their construct, Fama’s presentation of the Smudge vs. Ray situation in Plus One didn’t bother me at all. I think the reader was given just enough information to make sense of things, and little bits and pieces were added in over time.
Also the romance. It’s spoilery to explain much, but D’Arcy and Sol together were just…ah. So perfect. They were very cute together and totally sold the first-love/infatuation thing. And even though they were on the run together for the entire book, I actually bought their romance (I never buy that kind of romance), mostly because of spoilery reasons. At the same time, though, I liked how practical Fama was, by keeping things open-ended and hinting that maybe their love wouldn’t follow Sol and D’Arcy into adulthood. That practical note was the final piece of a great relationship.
In the end, I have nothing to complain about. This book was seriously good. Elizabeth Fama has done it before with mermaids, and now she’s done it with a dystopian-romance-thriller hybrid that is non-stop action. Plus One is an excellent, entertaining novel that is fun, engaging, and different.
