The Registry

Mia Morrissey believed that her greatest achievement in life would be a top ranking in the Registry of marriage-eligible 18-year-old girls: “Since she’d been old enough to understand her duty and her role, Mia knew she would marry a very wealthy man.” Her illusions collapse when her sister, Corinna, flees an abusive husband and mysteriously dies shortly afterward. Mia discovers that the Registry is an oppressive system where women are commodities, created in the wake of a wartime disaster. Just before her wedding to arms dealer and likely psychopath Grant Marsden, Mia runs for Mexico, aided by her friend Whitney and—unwillingly—by her father’s farmhand Andrew. In this poorly-written, clichéd attempt to emulate popular tropes of dystopian fiction, it’s difficult to care whether Mia and her friends will make it to Mexico before Grant catches them, thanks to Stoker’s leaden prose, flimsy characters, sketchy world-building, and heavy-handed attempts at sociopolitical commentary. (June)