Review: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Series: The Tribe (#1)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 

“There will come a day when a thousand Illegals descend on your detention centres. Boomers will breach the walls. Skychangers will send lightning to strike you all down from above, and Rumblers will open the earth to swallow you up from below. . . . And when that day comes, Justin Connor, think of me.”

Ashala Wolf has been captured by Chief Administrator Neville Rose. A man who is intent on destroying Ashala’s Tribe — the runaway Illegals hiding in the Firstwood. Injured and vulnerable and with her Sleepwalker ability blocked, Ashala is forced to succumb to the machine that will pull secrets from her mind.

And right beside her is Justin Connor, her betrayer, watching her every move.

Will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf?

Me, while reading:
I think I like this book. Yup, I really like this book. I totally know what’s going on. Wait, what did I just read? Um…okay. I think I still know what’s going on though, nice try. Wait…what did she just say? Crap, I have no idea what’s going on, do I? WAIT…WUUUUUUT?! FUCK! I have never known what was going on! Damn it.

So touché, Ms Kwaymullina, that doesn’t happen to me very often.

Somehow, going into this, I didn’t realize that it was a YA book. Or that it was a dystopian. If I had known, I probably wouldn’t have given it a chance as I’d previously rage-quit the genre due to the incredibly frustrating repetitiveness I’d been encountering in it lately. Thank the lawd for my mistake because this book breaks the mold, folks.

You know that annoying theme in so many dystopian books where humanity somehow reverts back to racism and sexism after an apocalypse? Yeah, this book doesn’t have that in it.

You know that annoying theme in so many dystopian books where the female lead is somehow the ONLY IMPORTANT GIRL in the world? The one where she’s the sole female in a male-dominated race or competition or position, etc, etc? And everyone else with tits is “the enemy”? Yeah, this book doesn’t have that in it.

You know that annoying theme in so many dystopian books where it’s really just a love story? Sure there are some nifty fights and some other stuff but in the end it’s about getting Mary Sue and Gary Stu together? Yeah, this book isn’t one of those.

You know that annoying theme in so many YA books where the heroine is TSTL? Or worse, the smartest person that ever smarted? Yeah this book doesn’t have that in it either.

You know ALL those annoying themes that piss you off? Yeah, this book doesn’t have em.

So what IS this book, you’re asking? In short, this:

SAVED THE GENRE.