Title: Dust City Author: Robert Paul Weston
Published: September 30, 2010
Genre(s): Fantasy
Page Count: 299
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:When your dad is the wolf who killed Little Red Riding Hood, life is no fairy tale.
Henry Whelp is a Big Bad Wolf. Or will be, someday. His dad is doing time for the double murder of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother so everyone assumes crime is in Henry's blood. For years, he's kept a low profile in a Home for Wayward Wolves on the outskirts of Dust City--a gritty metropolis known for its black market, mind-altering dust. And the entire population of foxes, ravens, and hominids are hooked. But it's not just any dust the creatures of this grim underground are slinging and sniffing. It's fairydust.
When a murder at the Home forces Henry to escape, he begins to suspect his dad may have been framed. With a daring she wolf named Fiona by his side, Henry travels into the dark alleyways and cavernous tunnels of Dust City. There, he'll come face to snout with legendary mobster Skinner and his Water Nixie henchmen to discover what really happened to his father in the woods that infamous night...and the shocking truth about fairydust.
Imaginative fairytale-type books are always a point of interest to me, ever since I fell in love with Gail Carson Levine as a kid. Robert Paul Weston’s Dust City an urban-fantasy-meets-fairytale YA novel about the Big Bad Wolf’s son, Henry. I really appreciated how unique this storyline was, but when it was all over, I didn’t find too much to make this book truly spectacular.
Our protagonist, Henry, as I said, is the son of the Big Bad Wolf, who serving a life sentence for his murder of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother. But when Henry discovers that his father might have been framed, he starts off across the city, looking into a cartel boss and the genius bigots who provide the drugs.
The world-building in Dust City is definitely the strong point here. Once upon a time, fairies granted wishes and made life better, but they disappeared. Now, the city runs on manufactured fairy dust that’s not even close to the real thing. There’s a strict segregation between hominids (elves, humans, dwarfs, giants) and animalia (wolves, mules, foxes, ravens, etc.). Though this is a fantasy world, a lot of Weston’s setting will be recognizable to readers in the real world. This is definitely a fairytale informed by reality.
But, sadly, in terms of plot and characterization, this book falls a bit short. I think this book might be a hit with younger YA readers, as it’s fairly simple and straightforward in most aspects. Uncovering secrets comes very easy to Henry, and everything lacks a layer of subtley I’m used to reading from more mature YA fiction. And that’s not a bad thing, of course, except this book did feel too easy almost all the time. The stakes were never very high, I felt.
Though not without flaws, Dust City by Robert Paul Weston is an enjoyable reworking of everyone’s favorite fairytale characters. The urban setting and real-life issues introduced in this book were a nice touch, though I ultimately felt that the story didn’t carry the depth and weight it could have (or maybe should have).
