The Keeper is the book you should be reaching for if you’re desperate for immediate immersion in a dystopian world but can’t bear the intolerable wait until the final instalment of The Hunger Games films comes out later this year (for some reason, leafing through one’s well-thumbed copies of the trilogy and internally playing ‘Peeta or Gale’ – Peeta, obviously – isn’t quite as satisfying the thirteenth time around.)
The Keeper, the follow up to bestselling writer David Baldacci’s much-lauded Young Adult fantasy debut The Finisher, features the plucky 15-year-old heroine Vega Jane and her loyal but slightly less wily companion Delph, 17. Oh, and there’s a host of fantastical creatures too, such as ekos, hobs and a canine (we’re assuming this is a bit like a dog rather than a tooth, but this is a point that’s never fully resolved in the text).
The book traces Vega Jane’s perilous journey through a sinister hinterland called the Quag, which surrounds her home village of Wormwood. Accompanied by Delph, she’s on a mission to find her family, who she believes are on the other side of the the mysterious expanse despite being told that there’s nothing beyond its parameters.
As you might have guessed, the Quag is not a simple terrain to cross. If your thoughts are straying to your Bronze Duke of Edinburgh right now, think again; in the Quag the landscape moves unpredictably, meaning you can’t even purposefully stride towards that hill, that big one, over there and feel like you’re making some progress. But Vega remains determined to complete her journey and discover the truth about what lies beyond it - even if it costs her her life.
Look out for:
Constant action
This isn’t necessarily for those who are looking for a quiet romance to be enjoyed with a steaming cup of tea in hand (I wouldn’t recommend hot drinks as an accompaniment to the book as the level of adventure is such that it induces frequent spluttering, jumping and yelping – not a good accompaniment to swallowing boiling substances).
One of my favourite things about the story was the way that the tension didn’t abate right until the final page, meaning it transported you out of your mind and into Vega Jane’s precarious world. Pretty chilling if you’re just tootling along on the 143 bus to meet your mate for a coffee.
Some pretty sweet gadgets
It’s fun to imagine what Vega Jane would be like were she a normal girl attending a normal high school in, say, Hartlepool. Aside from being mouthy with the teachers – Vega’s nothing if not the archetypal recalcitrant teen when it comes to dealing with figures of authority - she’d have all of the latest mechanisms. The latest phone, an Apple watch, a tablet that talks to you (I’m very up on gadgets, as I’m sure you can tell).
This is what the book suggests, anyhow, seeing as the plot revolves around her being in possession of a number of much-coveted magical apparatus. She has a chain that enables her to fly, for instance. And a stone that can heal wounds. Unfortunately this means that she has an ongoing struggle to make sure these don’t fall into the possession of anyone with less than honourable motives.
Some serious baddies
Vega Jane, Delph and Harry Two (Vega’s canine/tooth) have run ins with some of the nastiest characters in adventure fiction, including a king who tries to kill Vega mid flight and a mysterious woman whose youthful looks belie her breathtakingly old age.
A gutsy female lead
Vega Jane is approximately twenty-three times cleverer than most of the other characters in the book, which means the reader has the enjoyable experience of getting to share in her gratification when she arrives at a conclusion seemingly minutes before the answer has dawned on anyone else. She’s also funny, outspoken and daring, and wont to do things such as flying, wrestling people twice her size and age and bellowing insults at those who’ve upset her. So an all round inspiration, really.
Baldacci has ensured that there’s depth to her character by portraying her confusion over her feelings towards her dependable friend, Delph. This may actually produce one of the only instances in the book when everyone gets to the logical conclusion long before Vega Jane. (Psst - she’s crazy about him.)
So enjoy reading. You might have even forgotten about The Hunger Games film by the time you’re through with this one.
The Keeper is out now. Pick up a copy here.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.