Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womak

Lola, a twelve year old girl, lives with her parents and her sister in New York City. Not the New York City that we know now, but one that is far too easy to imagine. Seemingly in every large city there is almost constant rioting, and the armed forces have been brought in to control the streets. Jobs are few and far between, and the United States, if not the world, is changing for the worse.

The story is told as entries in a diary. Lola gets the diary for her birthday, and we see what happens to her only through these diary entries.

Lola's father is a screen writer, but with the downfall of the economy, no one is making films anymore. Lola's mother doesn't work, and there is little or no money coming into the family. As things go downhill financially for the family, Lola's parents do the one thing they can think of to do -- they move to a less expensive, smaller, apartment south of Harlem. This doesn't solve their financial problems, but it at least helps, and when Lola's father gets a job at a bookstore, the family can come close to having enough money to survive.

But this move starts a downhill journey for Lola. She meets other girls in the neighborhood about her age. We get to know the girls as Lola does, little by little. It would be nice to be able to say that these new friends lead Lola down a path of crime leading to the end of the book, but that isn't what happens. Lola may be lead, but she quickly realizes that the money she gets helps her family live. In many ways she leads herself down the path she takes.

By the end of the book, Lola has changed, in fact, changed so dramatically that if we hadn't watched the changes happen, we'd never know it was the same person. She thinks differently and speaks differently, and her actions are no longer those of the sweet twelve year old we met at the beginning of the story.

I tend to think that Lola couldn't help but change. There is violence all around her. The armed forces killing rioters. The president of the United States is assassinated, not just once, but several times during the course of the book. The "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" doesn't refer so much to Lola and her friends, but to the world around them that is quickly becoming violent, unpredictable, and insane.

It's very difficult to recommend this book. Not because it isn't well written. It is. Not because it doesn't present a compelling and fast moving story. It does. It even manages to dramatically change the language used, but does it slowly, so slowly the reader barely recognizes what is happening. But I hesitate to recommend the book because it is simply a depressing book. She broke one final rule and it costs her friend, and if she follows the path she's on at the end of the book she won't stay alive long.

Should you read it? All I can say is I'm glad I read it, but I can't imagine reading it again.

The Ellie Chronicles, by James Marsdon

The Ellie Chronicles consists of the following three books:

While I Live
Incurable
Circle of Flight

Warning: Some minor spoilers for both the 'Tomorrow' series and the 'Ellie Chronicles'.

Note: 'While I Live' has recently been published in the U.S. Incurable will be released in the U.S. on September 1st. I don't know when 'Circle of Flight' will be released. I purchased the Australian versions of the final two books through 'Abes Books' on the Internet.

The Ellie Chronicles begins some time after the war has ended. The exact amount of time isn't specified, but we find out that Ellie has written a series of books about her and her friends' experiences during the war, three of which have been published. Ellie is somewhat of a hero to her own country-people, however the publicity has also caught the attention of some of the groups on the enemy side of the former conflict.

Ellie's family's farm is near the border between the two countries, and very early in the first of the three books, her parents are killed by a raiding party, one probably intent on killing Ellie.

Ellie, still caring for Gavon, a young orphan that attached himself to her during the war, now has to decide what to do with Gavon and with the farm. It's no real spoiler that she makes the decision to keep Gavon with her if possible, nor is it a spoiler to say she also decides to work the farm herself. Throughout all the 'Tomorrow' series, we've seen her love for the farm and for farming, and it would be almost unthinkable for her to make any other decision.

For all that Ellie is doing, it's sometimes good to remember that she hasn't even finished high school yet. She is perhaps 18 years old, and, in her country, needs a guardian until she is 21. She's taken a lot on -- a farm very much in debt, a ten year old deaf child, and all the other things that she needs to do for herself, like finish high school and perhaps go on to college.

And that's where Ellie is in life within the first few chapters of the first of the three books.

These books detail Ellie's struggles with Gavon, with the farm, and with both the enemy groups that raid in her country and a local group named Liberation that sends raids into the enemy's country. As seems to happen in movies and fiction, Ellie tries to stay out of the fights, but often gets drawn into them in one way or another. It's war, but its a more subtle war.

Ellie is forced to make some very difficult decisions. Decisions that in a just world she would never be forced to make. But the world she lives in simply isn't just. It's dangerous, and especially dangerous for her, and in the end she makes the decisions the way she feels she must.

I don't agree with all of her decisions, and think she made a couple of wrong choices at the end. Of course we'd like to believe she lived happily ever after, but I think that the author was showing us one more time that Ellie, for all the good in her, still is young and made some decisions that a younger person might make. Not necessarily wrong, but the not best, either.

But I hope I'm wrong. I hope that Ellie does live happily ever after.