Orleans

Author: Sherri L. Smith
Goodreads Rating: 4.29
Pages: 336
Format: ARC

First came the storms.
Then came the Fever.
And the Wall.

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct… but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Sherri L. Smith delivers an expertly crafted story about a fierce heroine whose powerful voice and firm determination will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

I’m not quite sure where to start on this book review. I was totally in love with the concept of this Delta Fever, and this whole quarantine, and even though it wasn’t executed the way that I expected, it was still a really great book, and it needs some more promotion because I only found out about this book because of a book swap.

I think I’m going to start with what was strange to me about this book. For starters, I wish they had explained a little more in-depth how they were able to test blood types in a part of the states that seems to have been cut off entirely from the rest of the country and its resources. There were other things like that that I felt warranted an explanation but I never got. I also haven’t decided how I felt about Fen’s speech, because her English was so broken, and it felt like things deteriorated in the south so rapidly, but maybe that’s because I can say that sitting behind my desk at work not really knowing how bad things can get and devolve that way. It took some getting used to, but eventually I was able to adjust.

I really liked Fen. She was an all-around good person who seemed to be true to her word. She kept her promise to Lydia to protect the baby and she kept her promise to take Daniel where he wanted to go. There were plenty of times she she could have reneged and almost did, but she didn’t because that meant something to her. She was a fierce girl who saw some really awful things in her life, but she was a fighter and she didn’t stop fighting until the end of the book, even when she was going to give up, she got smart and didn’t. I felt that it was a little strange how the book flip flopped between her POV and 3^rd person was Daniel. Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of that.

I also felt like we didn’t really get to know Daniel, we only learned that his brother died from the Fever, but then that was the end of it. Didn’t learn much about this family and I felt that I didn’t care too much for him, I wanted him to have a little more depth and he was severely lacking. I also couldn’t follow how he was 24 and this amazing scientist. If he had gone faster in school or something I felt that should have been explained why he was 24 and in 2 years since getting his BA, he had almost created a cure for DF. I’m sure things changed in like 50 years, but I don’t think that they would have been putting kids through school faster.

All in all it was a very creative and imaginative plot that I really enjoyed. I liked the concept and the other characters that were introduce, but I didn’t really love it the way that I expected that I would.

The Courts Decision: