Damaged Goods

Damaged Goods by Jennifer Bardsley
300 pages
Published January 17th 2017 by Month9Books

My rating: 4 stars
Book source: the author sent me a copy for review.

I'm going to try very hard not to spoil anything! So read at your own risk.

Well here we are again, dipping into the scary-dystopian Blank Slate world! I am not usually a fan of dystopian novels but I have been 100% on board with this series. Probably because I can see this type of thing happening IRL, and also because we're all at least a little addicted to technology, so it's fascinating to think what life would be like if we either had no tech (like the Vestals) or all the tech, all the time (like the Viruses).

In Damaged Goods, Blanca is trying to figure out what she's actually going to do with her life now that it's hers to do with as she pleases. Remember Julia Roberts in The Runaway Bride where she couldn't tell you how she liked her eggs because she never had any opinions of her own? That's how I think about Blanca. She's always been told how to behave and that she can't have any thoughts, feelings, or opinions of her own. Now that she's free and in the loving and supportive arms of her new family she has to figure it all out. And that's not so easy to do.

Once Blanca determines she wants to go to college, she has an immediate hurdle: while Tabula Rasa provided an excellent education when it came to the arts and languages, she's sadly lacking in any good math or science skills. Her STEM-deficiencies are meant to be overcome with the help of a private tutor to work with her in these areas until her college interview.

Stress? Stress!

Her boyfriend Seth is kind of all over the place. He obviously loves Blanca but also has his own responsibilities with his viral blog, Veritas Rex. His own addiction to tech and Blanca's refusal to start wearing color (which might sound silly if you haven't read this series but I figure Seth equates wearing color with finally breaking the mental hold her Vestal/Tabula Rasa upbringing still has on her) is a constant cause of conflict in their relationship. 

Old flames from both their pasts show up in this book, making me squirm and yell, "Drama Llama!" every other chapter. At one point I was just hit over the head with how immature Blanca was acting, but then I remembered: duh. She's only been really living IRL for a few months and has had a complete traumatic upbringing, with no experience with any fulfilling relationships, so she's still figuring it all out. And she's a teen, and teens do drama like TNT does drama.

Anyway! There's another rival organization introduced, The Guardians, aka the Chinese version of the Vestals. Trouble is a brewing, and you know our girl is going to get mixed up in it and have to figure out what to do. I'm leaving out the details of the action because I am horrible at not being spoilery when I talk about those things. Just rest assured this book is more than teen angsty drama and is definitely as fast-paced as Genesis Girl, with similar levels of suspense and plot twists I didn't see coming.

I have to say more about our heroine. Not only is Blanca brave, but she's also completely fragile. She's got so much living to do to catch up to her contemporaries, and not just in her STEM education. That's why I really, really love reading Blanca's stories. Her whole family history is all messed up (not mentioned here, because spoilers for the first book, Genesis Girl, and I'm not a spoilerer so you should go read that 100% before reading Damaged Goods!). Which is a constant force in her mind and her heart. How should she feel about her history? What should she do differently? How does this all impact her current life & relationships she's trying so hard to make work?

If you love strong female leads who are brave and smart (but don't always realize it right away), kicking butt even as they are struggling to make everything make sense and stop past hurts from taking over their lives, you'll want to read this series.