One of Us by Craig DiLouie is what I tend to call Dark Fantasy—a fantasy novel which takes place during our present era. This novel centers around a young generation of children which were born with monstrous disfigurements living as little better than slaves within harsh orphanages. There are several points of view in this novel, but they tend to focus on more of the younger characters.
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2018
Reviewer Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewer: Michael D. Griffiths
This might seem like a simple watered down X-Men plot, but it has far reaching implications. It focuses on the experience of the outsider and well as those who strive to help the oppressed even when they are forced to go against the grain of their own community.
The plot moves from understanding the outcasts, to feeling the hopelessness of their plight. Characters both good and ill step up to make a difference or work harder to keep the maturing mutants down. Things build to a head when one of the nicest of the mutated children is scapegoated into taking the fall for a cowardly pedophile’s crime. The town erupts with violence and hatred toward the children, but will it be anything compared to the teens if they were to erupt right back?
I think DiLouie took on huge undertaking and nailed it. Not too many down sides of doing what you can to fight racism and oppression. We should all be doing what we can and literature is one of the ways we can do this. So hats off to him. Problems, well… it is a little dark, as it has to be. Might be a little too serious for vacation light reading.
This is an interesting inventive way to make a positive difference while also entertaining the reader. This was a quick read for me as all good books are. It is worth checking this one out.
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