Title Dealing in Dreams Series --- Author Lilliam Rivera Cover Art --- Publisher Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers - 2019 First Printing Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers - 2019 Category Science Fiction Warnings Violence Main Characters Nalah, Deese Main Elements Dystopia

At night, Las Mal Criadas own these streets.

Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throw downs and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but the sixteen-year-old grows weary of the life. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city's benevolent founder and cross the border in a search for a mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders. Led by a reluctant guide, Nalah battles other crews and her own doubts, but the closer she gets to her goal, the more she loses sight of everything—and everyone— she cares about.

Nalah must do the unspeakable to get what she wants—a place to call home. But is a home just where you live? Or who you choose to protect?

I'll start off by saying these violent hardcore dystopias are not my thing, I'd have been unlikely to like it very much no matter the setting, the characters, or anything else...but it was free for a month online so gave it a try. And no, I didn't much like it. Hearing about 15 year old girls gangs patrolling streets at night, beating up on other gangs, and having all out fights for show in the arena to move up the ranks...not sure the word I want to use, it isn't disgusts or disturbs, but I'd so hate to end up this world that I didn't even want to read about it. But it was free so I kept going.

It took a long time, but when they finally got sent on a mission to check out a gang outside of the city, Nalah is forced to see that maybe there is another way to live one's life, and that's where things started to pick up a bit. That maybe her world is the bad one, that maybe her generous leader isn't so much trying to help the people, as help they stay squashed so they won't rebel. Break them down till they are all helpless addicts. Oh, and also shows that a female run society doesn't not automatically translate into an utopia. Treating men like dirt instead of equals doesn't make things better. Replace male gangs with female ones doesn't make things less violent. We are more the same than we realize. And seems no matter which way we go, if you are neither male nor female, or maybe you're both, or maybe you are not what you appear on the outside, will there's still no place for you, some things never change. Only, they need to change.

There is without a doubt going to be another book in the series, can't end a story with a character having her eyes opened and on the run and just leave it at that. I won't be going out of my way to track it down but if I discover it in the library one day, I might just pick it up out of curiosity.