Resources are tight, friends are leaving, and the schooling system is slowly diminishing. Faith Daniels is one of the outsiders, facing the difficulties of living on the outside. Every day the states’ boundary lines expand, and more outsiders make the decision to join either of the states. Between these two is a vast expanse of abandoned towns and small communities housing outsiders – people who are reluctant to assimilate into these newer states. In the former USA, two states exist: the Western State and the Eastern State. The world is in drastic climate change, and to protect the populations, countries worldwide have created states (I’m not quite sure why they thought this was the best solution as I can’t remember). Pulse is set in the future, year 2051 to be precise. Divergent similarities aside, I do really love this cover, and it is definitely what made me want to read more about it. I’m sensing that someone in the marketing department of this publishing house thought that they could draw off the sales of Divergent by making it seem similar. The similarities are even stronger when you consider the fact that Katherine Tegen is the publisher of the Divergent series. It has a random landscape in the background, the foreground has a prominent icon that is presented with circle symmetry, and the typography is a simple bold typeface. The first thing I thought when I saw the cover was how it gave me a Divergent feel. It popped up in the ‘recommendations’ section, and the cover instantly intrigued me. (Mar.I first found out about Pulse when I was on a Goodreads hyperlink clicking frenzy one night. Agent: Peter Rubie, FinePrint Literary Management. A large but well-developed cast and some grim turns of events keep the story moving and lay groundwork for the next book in this planned trilogy. Carman’s world-building doesn’t stand up to scrutiny (too many social structures appear designed to enable plot points), but the character-driven action should keep readers invested. After Liz’s family emigrates, Faith gets caught up in what could be the beginning of a war.

Faith also discovers her “pulse,” a rare power that gives her telekinesis. When Faith Daniels’s school is consolidated into another one, she and her friend and fellow junior Liz meet attractive and dangerous twins Clara and Wade. If they decide to emigrate, they are given free transportation to one of the States and cut off from the network. In the near-future wasteland between the giant Eastern and Western States, the remaining teenagers attend sparsely populated schools, ordering goods and taking classes piped in from the States on their networked Tablets. Carman (the Dark Eden series) mixes high school drama with mutations and conspiracies in this impressive take on the postapocalyptic novel.

Pulse by patrick carman