1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance.
Since Anabelle’s mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Galveston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father’s diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked.
At once evoking the dreams of an America explored in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and the harder realities of frontier life in Charles Portis True Grit, Ballingrud’s novel is haunting in its evocation of Anabelle’s quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world accompanied by a domestic Engine, a drunken space pilot, and the toughest woman on Mars.
Nathan Ballingrud’s stories have been adapted into the film Wounds and the Hulu series Monsterland, The Strange is his first novel.
Topics Gangs. Mars (planet). Revenge. Science fiction. Space colonies. Space opera. Alternative history. Westerns.
Trim Size 9" x 6"
JLG Span Fall
Language English
Rights type Print
Publication date 2023-03-20
JLG Release Date Jul 2023
Minimum grade 11
Maximum grade 12
Reading level High
Format Print
Adult Crossover Thrillers Plus (Grades 11 & Up)
Adult Crossover Thrillers Plus
Adult Crossover Thrillers Plus (Grades 11 & Up)
For Grades 11 & Up
This 14-book category includes suspenseful fiction and nonfiction for high school readers who are ready for adult reading. *Take note: these selections often contain mature situations and language that could be considered controversial.