The Hill

For 67 years, the female-led Colony has sent infant girls to the Hill, an island landfill off the Mainland, for survival training. Developing skills using the Manual—instructions meant to warn against the dangers of males as well as prepare the girls for life on the unruly Mainland when they turn 15—Hill denizens are given assignments as hunters, collectors, foragers, suppliers, or mothers. When 14-year-old Wren is made leader as Head Girl, she learns of strangers on the island, and with best friend Quinn, heads into a Manual-forbidden forest to search for a missing girl. But when the forest reveals others living on the island, Wren and Quinn discover that the Manual holds as many lies as truths. Facing an attack by Mainlanders and destruction of their beloved Hill, Quinn and Wren fight to keep the girls safe while confronting doubts about the Colony and Quinn’s jealousy over Wren’s new love interest. Bryan (The Figgs, for adults) fashions a dystopian adventure brimming with gutsy action sequences. While the worldbuilding can feel slim, featuring little character or situational development (the girls know the properties of most plants but do not seem to understand procreation), thought-provoking gender dynamics drive the charged plot. Ages 11–up. [em]Agent: Stacey Kondla, the Rights Factory. (Mar.) [/em]