Myndi Shafer

I don't remember when or or how I obtained Shrilugh ("shree-loo"), but I remember seeing it on my Kindle for a very long time, so I decided to take a chance and read it.

I made the right choice.

The story of Aydan Fulbert, a girl abused and hated by her father and sister, who learns that her family is not who they said they were and she is not who she thought she was, had me hooked from the first few pages. It is a fantasy adventure romance that is highly unsatisfying at the end, but only because the story continues in the next book. It is like a cliff hanger at the end of a TV series, and you don't want to wait until the next season.… (altro)

A fast-paced and enjoyable YA read. In a dystopian future, whoever possesses the Device can use it to change reality and in the new reality, the possessor becomes immortal. Trouble is the Device has not been used well. Society is tyrannical with a few haves (the 1%?) and many have-nots, and the planet is an ecological disaster.

The young woman Hanna has been imprisoned for six years by Annabel Haien, the ruthless leader of one of the fragmented warring states that comprise North America. Haien thinks Hanna, who was born into the class of the Naviganti, the people who know how to use the Device, can help her find and use it so that Haien herself will become immortal. But three friends of Hanna's dead brother Bill, who was part of a rebel movement, help her escape her prison. From them she learns that she may have to sacrifice herself to heal the planet.

The plot moves at a fast clip, with some surprising twists along the way. Shafer's prose is clean and streamlined: description of this future society was bare-boned but deft and believable. I found myself wanting more information about the Naviganti and the origins of the Device, as well as the mechanics of its transformative effects. (I had a similar reaction to an Australian sci-fi movie The Quiet Earth , in which a scientist wakes up to a very changed reality.)

However, despite my questions about how the Device worked, I enjoyed the ride. The story and Hanna kept me engaged and turning the pages.
… (altro)

The author, Myndi Schaffer, gave me a copy of this novel in exchange for my review.

Shafer gives the reader touchstones that will spark the consciousness of a younger generation in her work. This is going to be that work that a young reader will read again and again well into their elder years.

For much of the book we know that Johanna harbors a vague power or secret for which she’s feared. She has a canine companion that she calls Joby but, of course, he doesn’t know that because she never speaks. She lives her life expecting Joby, a pet given to her by a friendly guard, to one-day just leave her life and she will go on because that’s how life works. The sense of desolation from this character is astounding. She has plans but little hope and to live each day without that sense of something coming next punches the reader in the heart. Matthew asks Joanna who is skirting the edge of a dance floor if she knows why they dance. “Defiance…. It is our reminder that a good life - even if it’s a simple life, an underground life - is worth fighting for” (Page 78). The impact of what this society has lost is stark and vital and one that readers will understand is to be cherished.

There is an expert flow to Shafer's story. The beauty of her construction is that its so well thought out. This is not an author who sat down and raced out a slap-dash story to post and make a few bucks. “Hanna Hanna One and Two” reads as a labor of love and I loved it.

There are risqué language and adult themes in “Hanna Hanna One and Two.” The story is suitable for older teens and adults who love good stories.… (altro)