Inhuman

[cornerofmadness]

Inhuman by Kat Falls

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was in a basket of books I won from my library a few years back and I put it off because its blurb mentioned dystopia and romance two things I do not like very much. However it fit a Popsugar prompt so I decided why not? I might have liked it better if I didn’t wait to read a book about a pandemic until the tail ends of one I just lived through. It was a 3.5 read for me. I didn’t round up because of some weirdness that bothered me.

Also can I just say to all the YA authors, if you’re going to give us a love triangle if it doesn’t end up in a polyamorous relationship, why bother? It’s old. It’s not that exciting any more and having a character say hey I’m leaving this triangle doesn’t make the triangle any better (and this one ended up weird and ending even weirder)

Lane is a pampered girl growing up west of the Wall. It was erected a few decades back after a pandemic wiped out most of America (what happened in the rest of the world we have no idea. It’s like the rest of the world either disappeared or exiled all of America) I thought that she was living in California but it was less than 3 days bike ride to Chicago and back so I’m lost (that was one of the reasons not to round up) Her father is an art dealer who travels a lot so she thinks, mom is gone.

She is brought in by the government because her father is a Fetch, someone who sneaks out beyond the walls trying to bring back stuff people left behind (and in his case bringing food/meds etc to the people trapped on the other side. The government official wants her to get her dad to do a fetch and all will be forgiven. Naturally Lane tries and ends up on the island just outside the wall where a doctor is working on a cure. Almost immediately she’s stopped by two men, Rafe another fetch and manimal hunter, who is rude and rough and Everson, a line guard who is courteous and kind.

Both know her father. Both end up helping her on her quest. Both naturally end up as her would be love interest. Another reason I didn’t round up: toxic masculinity as being preferrable to the kindness. Can we just stop with this? Can we stop handing young women the idea that the rude, abusive, toxic masculine dude as being the better man? That he'll always beat out the nice guy. It is such a disservice. At least Rafe does get better as he goes.

The virus they built a wall over is capable of splicing animal genes into other animals including humans, spread by salvia like rabies. It’s man made, sort of Jurassic Parking it, trying to make a zoo of hybrid animals (why isn’t very clear) it naturally got away from them. There are some fifty possibilities. And all humans who are bitten (left behind in the feral zone) take on the animal they’re bitten by like tiger, bear, wolf etc. The author did a good job with explaining viral genomic transduction but on the other hand, it’s less likely something by animal bite would go this badly (else rabies would be worse than it is) as compared to a respiratory droplet spread (like Covid) Regardless that’s the plot and the infected humans almost always go totally feral killing everyone in sight. Meds can slow this down.

Naturally gentle-raised Lane doesn’t want to see manimals hunted and killed and interferes with Rafe (which naturally will bite them in the butt). Rafe has a very complicated and interesting relationship with her father.

The story is interesting enough. And while it does tie up the plot, it does end on a cliffhanger for volume two. I’d get it from the library but unlikely to buy it.




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