Fiction Friday | Apprentice (Collective Underground #1) by Kristen Young

My first introduction to Kristen Young was when she won the CALEB Award from Australasian Christian writing organisation Omega Writers. I had donated a free manuscript assessment as the prize, so got to read and critique Kristen’s entry.

I was thrilled to find it was dystopian fiction.

I’ve been a fan of dystopian fiction since before I knew the term. In particular, I’ve always been fascinated by stories like War of the Worlds or The Tripods, or other novels that show a version of future Earth where something has gone very wrong. (I even read The Running Man, back when it was by an unknown author called Richard Bachman.)

Anyway, I enjoyed reading Kristen’s manuscript, but there it assumed a lot of prior knowledge about her created world.

I thought the novel needed a little backstory.

She took my comments seriously, and wrote Apprentice, which has now turned into the first book in a trilogy. I enjoyed reading an early draft of the manuscript and was thrilled when Kirsten announced Enclave Publishing had offered her a three-book contract for the trilogy.

I’ve now read Apprentice again, and it’s even better the second time around (even though I know what’s going to happen).

The main character is Apprentice Kerr Flick, a teenager about to sit the selection exams which will lead to her future career. Kerr isn’t like the others in her class. She has a perfect memory, which means she can remember everything she’s ever read or seen, and every conversation she’s ever had. That is, she can remember everything since the age of five. Trying to remember before that isn’t a blur. It’s physical pain …

Kerr is part of the Love Collective, ruled by Supreme Lover Midgate. Teachers are called Lovers. Everyone has to speak in the approved lexicon, memorise a range of catechisms (no problem for Memory Freak Kerr), and be on the lookout for Haters so they can be reported to the Collective and sent to Embracement.

The worldbuilding is strong, and puled me in immediately.

This is partly because the novel utilises some familiar speculative fiction tropes, like the Chosen One (well, I assume Kerr is going to end up in that role), and a testing procedure to assign people to occupations or further education (as in Divergent or The Giver).

Apprentice isn’t set on an overt Earth like, say, The Hunger Games or Divergent. In fact, the location is never made clear. But it could be our Earth. Or not. Wherever it is, there are chilling reminders of Nazi Germany, of people being brainwashed into reporting their friends and family as enemies of the state.

In Apprentice, Kristen Young paints a convincing and chilling portrait of a 1984-eque world. I’m looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks to Enclave Escape for providing a free ebook for review.