#BookReview-‘The Kingdom’ by Jess Rothenberg

About the book…

The local bloggers group, who meet on a monthly basis at Waterstones in Swansea (the #SBCollective) were fortunate enough to receive gifted review copies of ‘The Kingdom’ by Jess Rothenberg in June.

A fan of Y.A for some years now, I am a sucker for a fairy tale retelling and when the tagline of a book reads ”Where Happily Ever After Is Not Just A Promise, But A Rule”, I am 100% there to read it!

It’s a fairytale which ends in murder as the one of the ‘Fantasists’ goes renegade… Ana, a half-human, half-android princess, is tasked with entertaining visitors and making wishes come true but now she’s on trial, after finding herself experiencing emotions and romantic feelings against all her programming.

Told through court testimony, interrogation records and fragmented flashbacks, The Kingdom has the futuristic appeal of Westworld and the twists and turns of a true-crime thriller.

In the Kingdom, 12 hybrid human/robot fantasists await to remind all the visitors that they represent an escape from the outside world,an escape from misery, poverty and all the ills which beset modern life.

The female hybrids (I actually only counted 9 in the book which was a bit of a niggle) cover pretty much all the modern fairytales without explicitly naming them -Pania (Nia) is the mermaid feature in Mermaid Lagoon for example-and exist purely to fulfil a pre-programmed function, to entertain and bring fantasy to life.

It is a Disneyworld theme park taken to the ultimate end point where no human emotions, offtrack thinking or distractions like pregnancy, tiredness, sickness,or ageing will interefere with their daily duties. At night, all the hybrids are strapped to their beds and ‘rested’ by their ‘Mother’ whilst ‘Father’ (Dr Foster) is their creator.

Of the hybrids, there are older generations like Ana, the narrator, and Eve, the first generation hybrid.They have vague memories of their sister,Alice, the one who escaped ‘beyond the green light’ and entered the real world. In the book, several storylines are left subtly unfinished, leaving you to make your own mind up about where the end of the path lies as it twists deep into the dark, twisted woods.

Alice’s is one of them-she exists as a cautionary tale as she was set upon by a gang and torn to pieces.At first I wasn’t sure whether Alice was real or another concept designed to keep the hybrids in line but later in the novel, newspaper articles relate that she was, and ever since, there has been a bridge built and no way of escaping from The Kingdom.

”Daddy powers on his drill.”There’s no such thing,Ana.”He lowers his mask.”Escape is a lie.”

Another sinister sideplot is that people,men and women known as ‘The Investors’ arrive for private appointments with the hybrids. None of them can remember what has happened to them, but the implications are clear-fantasy is being taken to the highest bidder to do with as they wish.

As the court transcripts later state-

”Hybrids have no inner self,Ms Bell. They are merely programmed to react to a broad spectrum of stimuli.Light.Sound.Taste.Touch.Praise.Punishment.Kindness.Cruelty.”

Shudders. One can only imagine what they must have been through.

Hybrids are programmed not to think for themselves and the narrative, which flashes back from the court case to the events preceding it, take us directly inside protagonist Ana’s mind. She has been accused of murder-an act which should be entirely impossible given the hybrid’s programming. But as the trial proceeds, interspersed with fairytales from ‘Mother’ and newspaper reports, makeup tutorials etc, it becomes increasingly clear that there is something very rotten in the Kingdom.

”You’re a part of a fantasy distracting us from the world.”

They have a programme breeding extinct or near extinct animals using hybrid technology .They present an idea of ‘ownership’ by identifying the hybrids as less than human, they are the ‘other’ therefore can be seen as a subspecies.They are not supposed to to act outside their programming. But regular, consistent contact with humans sees this overriding some of the hybrid functions-interestingly it is the older models which begin to rebel, the younger ones appear to have been fixed.

As you read, you begin to wonder who are the prisoners and who are truly free-the humans are sold the illusion that keeps them going through their daily grind and the hybrids get the satisfaction of performing as per instructions.

It is an interesting allegory on the way women are treated and valued in society-what has been removed from them is their ability to say ‘No’, there are no male hybrids,and all the limitations of female flesh are stripped away.

So did Ana do it?

Who did she murder?

Will she be shut down and stripped for parts as has happened to her sister?

It’s a murder mystery, a near future shocker, a thought experiment on the way women, especially young women, are expected to behave and a society that supports a system that reinforces ‘right and wrong’.

I really, really enjoyed it and found it gripping. It has a great ending as well, which could either be explored in a sequel or left as it is which is rare these days-my thanks to Pan Macmillan for the paperback review copy

About the author…

Jess Rothenberg is a writer and freelance editor who grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. A former editor of books for young readers, including the #1 International Bestselling Vampire Academy series, Jess lives in New York City with her husband, son, and cat-who-thinks-he’s-a-dog, Charlie.

Her debut novel for teens, ‘‘The Catastrophic History of You and Me’, has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Links-https://www.jessrothenberg.com/

Twitter @jessrothenberg

@Swanseastones

@panmacmillan