Rebel Wars - 2018 Awards [CLOSED]

#TAGFEST WINNER || May in the Wastelands Review

May in the Wastelands

By MeganLin90

Chapters 1-5

Review by ReneeShantel

Review

When soldiers raid her village in search of slaves for their capital's upper-class camps, eighteen-year-old May and her family flee their home in the hopes of finding somewhere to hide. With her small stature due to the scoliosis she has suffered all her life, May is the only one small enough to fit into a drainpipe – and therefore the only one of her family to evade capture.

With no one to turn to and nowhere to go, May heads for the mountain in search of help. Here she meets Raphael – a man who claims to run one of the rebel houses working against the capital, Asmara. But despite claiming no affiliation with Asmara, Raphael is one of the upper-class. He claims to have a plan – a plan in which he wants to involve May – though May isn't certain that she can trust him. But with her family's lives on the line, does she really have a choice?

May In The Wastelands is a masterfully written tale of a girl whose disability is set to become one of her greatest assets – and to make it even better,  is writing with true passion in her heart. One look at the opening Author's Note should be enough to tell you how important this story is to her. I won't spoil things there; I encourage you to go and read the note for yourself, even if you don't intend to read the story. It truly is heart-felt.

Let's get the usual stuff out of the way: spelling, grammar and punctuation is practically flawless here. Megan obviously knows her craft, and she knows it well. I read the first five chapters of this novel, and I found them to be quite polished, well-paced, and full of all the information a reader could need to jump into her world. You don't have to wait long for the action to start, and when it does you'll find it difficult to look away from the page.

Onto the story itself! There are so many things to love about it, and wonderful, truthful world-building is only the first. Megan has weaved in the town's backstory magnificently, having her protagonist speak of lost religion and stories passed down by word of mouth. The idea of May's village having deliberately cut itself off from civilisation (and this not being a big secret to the youth of the town!) is an intriguing aspect, and it gives the story a feel of being modern while also giving it that old-world feel – potentially doubling its audience and making things interesting for everybody.

Keeping up with that modern feel are all of the modern-day elements that the story brings with it: the addition of slave camps, a village outside of modern society, soldiers rumoured to be created in labs. Dystopia is a very popular subject in the young adult world at the moment, and May In The Wasteland fits in with them perfectly. Pulling all of these things together gives the story such an original feel to it that it's no surprise that May not only won the Tagfest category, but was also long-listed for the Wattys!

But arguably most important to a story are its characters, and May is such an outstanding protagonist that you're bound to connect with her in one way or another. Megan makes sure you don't forget that May is suffering from scoliosis, but she does so without shoving it in your face. It's all there in the way that May struggles to get through simple tasks, the strained relationship she has with her sister, and the tender moments she has with her mother. Everything felt so authentic that I was able to fall into the story and simply enjoy the experience.

Overall, if you're looking for something informative and dystopic, thought-provoking and real, May In The Wastelands is the story for you. Do yourself a favour and add it to your reading list – you certainly won't regret it!