This is a very interesting and unique book. It centers on Zeyya, a teen living in a futuristic city called the Greater East Coast Metropolis in the year 2047. It is definitely a police state. People disappear frequently, as they are selected for Quarantine as a result of Darwin Q, a mysterious syndrome that seems to hit people randomly. Zeyya and her parents living in a disgusting roach-infested apartment building that is a serious step down from their previous place.

It is in this building that she takes on a first job as a babysitter for a little boy named Ethan. His mother needs her to look after him while she goes to work. Even through, Zeyya is too young to work, they risk it. Zeyya could always use the money to connect to the net. When Ethan and his mom are swept up for Quarantine, he becomes her much needed muse as she works hard to complete a music composition for school.

When her parents are also taken by the government, she flees into the edge of the city to live with her 98-year-old grandmother. Before long Granna and Zeyya are joined by a mysterious young man named Jonah, who is covered with tattoos representing his ancestors, with whom he can commune and share memories. Zeyya definitely distrusts him, but she finds herself growing closer as they live together over the summer.

The three of them also share in Granna's past as she tells them of how she arrived in Burma in the 1950's with her parents. These tales and letters from various family members from that time period compliment the changes in the world of the tale as Burma falls to a military coup, changing it into the police state we currently know as Myanmar. It is clear that things have not improved by 2047.

The characters are really the strength of the book. They are rich and detailed. Each of them gets an opportunity to share what makes them special as the work hard to avoid the attention of the government and find comfort in each other. I ended up reading this to review it for a teen book award, but this one really feels more like a book for adults. I think they would more easily appreciate the complex relationships that span decades when you throw in the parallel storylines of the 1950s and the 2040s.

There are also numerous beautiful pictures interspersed throughout the book that helps the reader visualize the examples of Burmese culture that pops up throughout the book. In fact, the photos and the letters are actually pulled from the family history of the author, which adds an honest richness to the historical aspects of the book because it really becomes part memoir for her family as well as being a dystopian tale about the future of a country we have recently heard so much about in the news.