Life Sucks and then You Get a Tattoo Review of Trashlands.

 This is one of my favorite books to read in a long time, and I read a lot of books. The whole world has gone to hell and about the only jobs left are scavenging for used plastic or dancing in a dump of a joint called Trashlands. Everybody has gone through something traumatic in their lives and yet they still bond and care about whoever and whatever they can make into a family life. Scavenging for food, for garbage, for acceptance. Trying to protect children (who are kidnapped to work in factories sorting plastic) protect themselves, protect what little freedom and family life they have. Despite all the problems, the good people are people readers will care for and relate to, and the bad people are bad in all the bad ways and if you relate to them then that's icky.

The residents of Scrappalachia are so isolated that they don't know that cities still exist, that there are jobs in the world that aren't scavenging or dancing in dives. All strangers are to be distrusted until one day a kindly reporter arrives from a big city, looking for his sister who has gone missing. And you know what happens when an outsider arrives. Their world turns up-side-down. (Actually, there are a lot of outsiders, but most are men drunk of alcohol made from rot, there for nothing other than ogling dancers. 

Will the kidnapped child ever return? Will the characters get out of their grueling lives? Will the main character bite her lip until she tastes blood? (Yes, but only once so my bite-o-meter did not even wiggle.) This is one heck of an exciting ride, even if few of the cars of the world still run. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin (who knew Harlequin printed horror?) for allowing me to read this post-apocalyptic ARC ebook.