Thomas and Friends: My Red Railway Book Box (Bright & Early Board Books)

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book but I was pleased. Dante is a nobody; he's the lowest on the food chain you can get. Bea is a "noble" girl, if you will, who attends school and is not looking forward to her 14th birthday where she will become and adult and begin receiving Ichor. Dante works in the kitchen of the asylum where all the people that are deemed disturbed or crazy are brought. Bea dreams of a life not her own. These two will cross each other's path and soon become friends. When Dante approaches Bea at her school she loses her status and is shunned by the other students for interacting with a nobody of the lower class. Her parents are not happy either. When a new patient is brought to the asylum he tells Dante he knew his mother. They only have a few seconds to talk before the guard locks his back up. Soon Bea and Dante will hatch a plan together to get in and talk to this stranger. Dante wants to know of his mother; Bea wants to know of the Ruined city she's always dreaming of. The plan doesn't work as they hoped and soon Bea is in serious trouble and Dante finds himself hooked up to the shock treatment machine. With the help of the new patient the pair will escape the island they've grown up on to start a new life on the mainland. However, the powers that be on the island are at war with their new family. This book is post-apolycpatic in a way, as the world is not what it used to be. People are given a drug to not dream or have hope making them hollow and weak. It's a very fast read and a page turner. I'm excited to read the next book. It's not a book I'll keep to re-read I don't think but I don't feel I wasted my time on it.

The first installment in THE PROMISES OF DR. SIGMUNDUS trilogy, THE HOLLOW PEOPLE introduces readers to a kitchen boy and lowly servant. Dante is the least important of all the people on Tarnager, the fortress-like island where he was raised. Since his mom, a dangerously insane criminal, committed suicide when he was a baby, Dante has had no one to care for, and no one who cares for him. That is, until he crosses paths with Beatrice. The daughter of two doctors on the island, Bea has never been allowed to question the teachings of Dr. Sigmundus, their reclusive leader. Like all young people on the island, she is expected to prepare for her coming-of-age ceremony, where she'll take Ichor for the first time and join the adults in their peaceful, dream-free lives. The problem is, Bea does have questions. Some people, like Dante, still have dreams even after they've taken Ichor. Are those people really insane, as everyone tells her? Bea wants to know why she dreams of a ruined city, and how Dante recognizes the city in her drawing. Encounters with a notoriously dangerous new asylum patient land Dante and Bea in hot water with the island director. It isn't long before they're launched together on a new journey, where their many questions will no longer be ignored. But, are they ready for the answers? The characters and storyline have remained with me weeks after reading THE HOLLOW PEOPLE. I enjoyed it enough to seek out the title of the second book in the series, THE GALLOWGLASS, and I can't wait to see how the story unfolds. Reviewed by: Julie M. Prince