Elysium Girls

Books | Young Adult Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic

3.7

Kate Pentecost

A lush, dazzlingly original young adult fantasy about an epic clash of witches, gods, and demons.Elysium, Oklahoma, is a town like any other. Respectable. God-fearing. Praying for an end to the Dust Bowl. Until the day the people of Elysium are chosen by two sisters: Life and Death. And the Sisters like to gamble against each other with things like time, and space, and human lives. Elysium is to become the gameboard in a ruthless competition between the goddesses. The Dust Soldiers will return in ten years' time, and if the people of Elysium have not proved themselves worthy, all will be slain.Nearly ten years later, seventeen-year-old Sal Wilkinson is called upon to lead Elysium as it prepares for the end of the game. But then an outsider named Asa arrives at Elysium's gates with nothing more than a sharp smile and a bag of magic tricks, and they trigger a terrible accident that gets both Sal and Asa exiled into the brutal Desert of Dust and Steel. There Sal and Asa stumble upon a gang of girls headed by another exile: a young witch everyone in Elysium believes to be dead. As the apocalypse looms, they must do more than simply tip the scales in Elysium's favor—only by reinventing the rules can they beat Life and Death at their own game in this exciting fantasy debut.

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More Details:

Author

Kate Pentecost

Pages

304

Publisher

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published Date

2020-04-14

ISBN

1368044352 9781368044356

Ratings

Google: 4

Community ReviewsSee all

"Some of the writing is a little weird (this is a debut novel) but it felt really original and I liked the characters. Also: awesome cover."

Sarah Brown

"I just finished this book a few minutes ago and loved it! It has a little bit of everything I love in a book, magic, witches, powerful women, and a few shocking twists. I would suggest this book to anyone that loves fantasy with a hint of apocalypse. Amazing book 10/10"

Kaitlyn Holm

"This book takes place in a small dust bowl era town which is pulled out of time and forced into a game of Life and Death. If at the end of ten years they have built a just society Life wins, but if not Death will claim the townspeople for herself. The majority of the story takes place as the town is approaching the ten-year mark, so there's a time pressure that keeps things exciting. The founding of the town and appointment of the leader who is in charge during the book is glossed over a bit, but it did also happen when the main point of view character was an elementary school aged child so it's understandable. There is also a magical element to the story that I wasn't expecting, where some of the humans have magical powers. It took a while to get used to but overall I liked it. There are quite a few characters, considering that they are isolated outside time for the duration of the game. Most of the characters are interesting and the interplay between them is fun, but they do end up relying on stereotypes or a single character trait a bit much for my liking. There is a daemon character sent to influence the game and he is likable but also so stupid that I wanted to scream sometimes. There's some very mild romance, a bit of found family feelings, some pretty wild plot twists and a few fun fight scenes. A few things wound up sort of getting glossed over in the rush at the end, but overall I enjoyed the story and characters. The message about free will and what a just society actually is was a good one. One thing that bugged me though was the format. The main character’s point of view was written in first person, but every other character who had point of view was written in third person. It would switch between them in the middle of a chapter which could be jarring. I think I would have preferred either all third person or first person with their own chapters."

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