The Kingdom

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg

I don’t often pick up Young Adult (YA) books, but I heard good things about this one and decided to give it a go. 

The Premise: The Stepford Wives go to Disney World. The narration bounces around in time.  We know Ana has been tried for murder, and we slowly learn the details as the book unfolds.  We also learn that Ana and her sisters are hybrids, very authentic looking humanoid robots working at a gigantic theme park called The Kingdom.  These “princesses” are programmed to make ‘happily ever after’ feel true to guests of the park.  The Kingdom is known for their advanced hybrid technology.  In fact, in addition to the Fantasists (the princesses), the park has all sorts of hybrid creatures.  The park sounds absolutely amazing, but of course, you can’t play with science and technology to this degree without something going wrong.

A very interesting look at artificial intelligence and what it means to be human.  So, even though Sci-Fi/Fantasy type books are not by normal reads, I must say, I really enjoyed this one.