GOLDEN DREG BOY

In the near future, America has been decimated by disease. Those cities that remain exhibit the stark duality of high-tech opulence and poverty-strewn abandonment. Seventeen-year-old Kade Shaw is a Golden, one of the rich elite living in mansions in the hills of what used to be San Francisco. Kade takes his privilege for granted. Yes, he sometimes hands out (currency) points to the impoverished Dregs, but he never questions their lot in life or the unbreachable divide between the classes. And yet Kade is different. Even though Goldens are highly susceptible to illnesses, he has never been sick. Supposedly Kade’s immunity stems from his father’s research. But could there be a more insidious explanation? When Kade is arrested one night, he expects his parents to sort it out. There must have been a misunderstanding. But Kade, accused of being a Dreg imposter, is sentenced to summary execution. While his parents cannot help him, he is rescued by a group of Dregs led by a young woman Kade finds impossibly alluring. How will Kade survive living without privilege? How much of the truth has been hidden from him? Dailey writes in the first-person, present tense and paints a detailed, grim picture of post-apocalyptic society. The prose is accomplished. The dialogue, though peppered with neologisms (“shucky,” “doink”), is naturalistic enough not to jar readers. The supporting characters are well rendered. The story moves along at a good pace, and while the underlying tale isn’t new—John Christopher’s Wild Jack (1974) springs particularly to mind—it is one well worth telling to a new generation of readers. Ultimately, the book’s effectiveness will rest on readers’ appreciation of Kade, a protagonist at once exasperating (his propensity for saying the wrong thing), endearing (his love for his sister, Emmaline, and compassion for others), and cringeworthy (his ingrained objectification of women). This last will be especially hard for the audience to stomach, although it is a trait that the author has Kade take pains to overcome.

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