A review by waclements7
Dominion by Shane Arbuthnott

4.0

A very fun and enjoyable book. Molly Stout is an appealing heroine—she knows in her heart what is right but just needs to convince her mind to follow, because what she has learned flies in the face of everything she’s ever been taught and believes in. She is such a relatable character—at fourteen, how many people have immediate and strong convictions about what they need to do? Her hesitation is natural—after all, what she has been coming to believe makes her “spirit-touched” and in need of a disposal officer—a frightening prospect. If it’s true that the spirits that are harvested to run airships and all other manner of devices have wills of their own, that means they’re being enslaved against their wills. Molly has an affinity for working with engines, powered by powerful spirits enslaved in iron traps. What does this ability mean? Molly is a plucky enough young woman to find out. This seems to belong to an emerging genre I would call something like Spiritpunk. I think it’s awesome, and the other book I read with a similar theme was definitely adult oriented, so it’s great to have something along the same lines for Young Adults—I think it’s an intriguing idea and makes for a really fantastic new universe.

Book was provided by Orca Book Publishers. My opinion is entirely my own.