Reckoning

Twenty-five years after civil war tore England apart and beloved King Victor put it back together, the Kingdom’s inhabitants eke out a precarious living with just enough shelter and food. Sixteen-year-old Silver Blackthorn and her best friend Opie face the annual nationwide Reckoning, where the young are assigned their level in society; a lucky few are selected as Offerings to King Victor and sent to Windsor Castle to help him forge a new future from the ashes of the present. Silver is chosen, naturally, and the Offerings soon find their fate is nightmarish, as Victor proves to be a sociopathic monster. British author Wilkinson creates a villain and a system so unpleasant that readers will long to see them destroyed, and the Offerings face as much danger from their companions turning on each other as from their dangerous circumstances. A strong voice and an intricate endgame help compensate for the mishmash of overfamiliar dystopian trappings in this first book in a planned trilogy. Ages 14–up. Agent: Nicola Barr, Greene & Heaton. (July)