Naevia-18, I think that this book would work well marketed as a teen novel, Scifi genre. It has a lot of the conventions of Science Fiction (i.e. high technology) while still being close enough to home as to not drive a newish reader away. The book works as an introduction to Scifi while favoring the ‘Dystonian, Utopian, oh-no-wait-yep a Dystopian’ story type that seems so popular right through to the early twenties. Even the font used for the main title and chapter numbers screams old school science fiction.
I enjoyed the open ending, allowing the room for a series to grow. Several of the characters are strong enough to move and continue their lives in the “Outside” besides Naevia: Zoe, Raina and Kyler, with support from a few others. There’s a lot of potential here for world growth and character development. Heck, there could even be little side stories. And there’s so many questions that were never answered. Like, how DID Bette get pregnant?
Chris, keep reaching out, keep looking into those cracks and at those stars, keep building your lands and rivers and plants and people. You’ve got a great raw talent displayed in Naevia-18, full of creative ideas tempered with comfortable and familiar genre specific conventions. Decide who you want to attract to your book, who you think would best benefit from your storytelling style, and go for it.
You got this.
~Sarah Ockershausen Delp
Becoming 