About This Book:
The year is 2033, and in this near-future America where undocumented people are forced into labor camps, life is bleak. Especially so for seventeen-year-old Rania, a Lebanese teenager from Chicago. When she and her mother were rounded up by the Deportation Force, they were given the brutal job of digging in the labor camp’s mine searching for the destructive and toxic, but potentially world-changing chemical, aqualinium. With this chemical the corrupt and xenophobic government of the New American Republic could actually control the weather—ending devastating droughts sweeping the planet due to climate change. If the government succeeds, other countries would be at their mercy. Solidifying this power comes at the expense of the undocumented immigrants forced to endure horrendous conditions to mine the chemical or used in cruel experiments to test it, leaving their bodies wracked in extreme pain to the point of death. As the experiments ramp up, things only get worse. Rania and her fellow prisoners decide to start a revolution; if they don’t, they know they will die.
Told by four narrators—Rania, Jess (a former teenage Deportation Force officer), Vali, and Vali’s mother Liliana—Solis is about the courage and sacrifice it takes to stand and fight for freedom.
*Review Contributed by Kim Baccellia, Staff Reviewer*
SOLIS shows us the world of the camps where SANCTUARY introduces readers to what leads up to the changes in laws that deem those not citizens of the United States if they don’t fit certain criteria. Readers are also introduced to someone who is indoctrinated into this belief and her struggles when she ends up in the camp.
In SOLIS we see Vali who has escaped to California ‘sanctuary’ but wants to find her mother who was taken to one of the camps. Liliana, her mother, witnesses firsthand the horrors of the camps and the ‘true’ purpose behind them. The undocumented citizens have to mine a mineral in hopes of using it to harvest rain. There are brutal conditions which include those who are ‘harvested’ to test the mineral in action. With the ability to create rain comes global power as it’s scarce due to Global warming. The depictions of the camps with the cruelty and horrors are haunting.
There’s Jess, a former DF member who let some undocumented citizens flee. She’s imprisoned in the camp in Arizona. Her own older brother, whom she once idolized, is behind her torture and beatings.
There’s also hope that shines in this bleak landscape. The gentle songs from Kenna. Rania, a Lebanese teen from Chicago, holding on to the spark of love with Kenna. And the rumors of Solis, an organization, that is against the horrors of the roundups.
Powerful, gut-wrenching portrayal of a dystopian world that shows the horror when some groups of people are less valued. But also the portrayals of courage and hope to stand up against injustices.
2. Horrific dystopian world where undocumented citizens are forced into camps
3. Multiple POV
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