Charlotte Kersten

So What’s It About?

Isabel, once known as Wasp, has become leader of the fearsome upstarts, the teen girl acolytes who are adjusting to a new way of life after the overthrow of the sadistic Catchkeep-priest. They live in an uneasy alliance with the town of Sweetwater—an alliance that will be tested to its limits by the dual threats of ruthless raiders from the Waste and a deadly force from the Before-time that awaits in long-hidden tunnels.

Years ago Isabel befriended a nameless ghost, a supersoldier from the Before-time with incredible powers even after death, and their adventure together in the underworld gave her the strength and knowledge to change the brutal existence of the Catchkeep acolytes for the better. To save Sweetwater, Isabel will have to unlock the secrets of the twisted experimental program from centuries gone by that created the supersoldier and killed his friends: the Latchkey Project.

What I Thought

Admittedly, this book didn’t pack quite the same punch as the first book in the series, but I still loved it. It was fascinating and moving and exciting throughout. Although we already know what Latchkey is at this point, we get to learn more about what happened to the other child soldiers and learn more about how ghosts and memories work (I realized that it’s actually somewhat similar to what I came up for When We Walked in Memory, but that’s just a random aside!). All of this was very welcome to me, and while I initially wondered whether more books in the series were necessary, I am now very glad that they exist.

The most important parts of the story, for me, are the relationships between Isobel and the ghost and the ghost and Foster. The ghost and Isobel have such an interesting relationship because they are both incredibly guarded, hostile people who can’t express their emotions or actually come out and say that they care about each other. Isobel thinks that he’s simply trying to keep her alive because she can access his memories, while the ghost believes that she intentionally blockaded him and Foster from town. Despite their disagreements, the true deep bond between them is shown so well. In the acknowledgments for this book, the author mentioned that bigger publishers pushed for a romance between Isobel and the ghost in the first book in order to have it better fit the traditional YA dystopian mold, and I really just cannot believe how short-sighted and forced that would have been. What we have right now is so much more meaningful and interesting. I also love Foster, who is vibrant and kind and somehow still optimistic despite everything. The ending is a beautiful one, with a trapped Latchkey ghost being set free and Isobel seeing her recently deceased friend Sairy with the other upstarts in the ghost realm.

The author is currently putting out chapters of the third and final book on Patreon. I’ve been supporting her there for a while but have yet to read those chapters…I am saving them for just the right time. I would really recommend that any other fans of these books consider checking out her Patreon as well!