REVIEW: The Salt Line

The Salt Line
Author: Holly Goddard Jones

In this dystopian tale, residents of the United States live in regional zones protected by a wall that is surrounded by more than 4 miles of chemically burnt landscape, debris, and garbage. The wall is known as the Salt Line, referring to native folklore about punishment for disrespecting the land. The Salt Line protects those who live within the zones from miner ticks, ticks that can burrow inside people causing extreme pain, disease, and death.

As with most death defying acts, there are adrenaline junkies willing to pay lots of money for the chance to risk their lives. An adventure company, Outer Limits Excursion, will take groups outside the Salt Line to see what's left of the old cities, forests and beauty beyond the wall. Of course, it costs an exorbitant amount of money for those weeks of training, three weeks beyond the safety wall and two weeks in quarantine. The latest trip has pulled together a strange mix of people -- a famous musician and his girlfriend, a rich financial tech wizard, bored businessmen, and even the wife of a gangster. Little do they know that this excursion is going to go wickedly wrong.....

I enjoyed this book. It starts out a little bit slow because of character development, but that development time is vital to the story later. It sets the reasons why the characters react the way they do as the trip goes fundamentally wrong quickly. I'm not going to say much more about the plot, or why things go wrong because well....spoilers....readers will have to have their own Holy Crap moment just like I did. I said those two words multiple times while reading this book.

I do think I was bashed in the head a bit too much with the respect nature/revenge of the planet theme. It wasn't turned up to 11-M.NightShamalan level, but got a bit tiresome. The suspense of wondering whether any of this group of rich, spoiled thrill seekers would survive saved the story for me...I was more interested in that than the constant angry-nature-in-your-face theme.

All in all, a nice thrill. I'd definitely read more by this author.

**I was provided an advanced readers copy of this book by the publisher. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**