Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown & Sherwood Smith is yet another dystopian YA novel but somehow this one managed to combine dystopia with a sense of optimism, people being people, and community in a way that was refreshing and helped make the book interesting. The book is set in the future after what must have been a sun storm of some kind that destroyed electromagnetic things and did a number on DNA as well. Because of this we have a variant on the civilization returned to barbary that is a fairly common trope but we also have people fighting plants and animals that have mutated as well as people dealing with their own mutations. Into this setting we throw Ross, a prospector who is chased by a bounty hunter to the town of Las Anclas. Here the story switches viewpoint among a number of characters as the town goes through a crisis with a neighboring war lord. The viewpoint switching was interesting because you could see one character find trouble with another and then, when switched to that character, find that what was creating the friction was understandable from that second one’s point of view.All in all an interesting book. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy a good future set YA novel.
