Published in 2016, Madeline Ashby‘s Company Town deserves a place among the more solid entries in the burgeoning field of young adult dystopian novels that reach beyond a simple displacement of a boy-meets-girl narrative into a bleak future (although, it must be said, there is a strong romantic thread, especially in the latter half of the book).
The protagonist, Hwa, is a bodyguard working for a union that represents sex-workers in a town dominated by a single, controlling, multi-national corporation (obviously, this is nudging the YA market upwards in terms of maturity and subject matter, although, while certainly sex-positive, the book is never explicit or offensive). Through a combination of her own skill and a bit of luck, she is hired by the single family that literally owns the town to keep their youngest heir safe as he attends a high-end school. A deep friendship develops between them, and when the situation is complicated by the upper-level employee who hired Hwa becoming the aforementioned love interest, the wheels of plot are set fully in motion.
What is more interesting about the book is Ashby’s vision of the future, where class determines the ability of each individual to customize and improve upon their genetic lot, and her sophisticated characterization of Hwa, who is both a sophisticated and–appropriately for her age and life–somewhat naive narrator.
The ending is a bit pat–it is YA, after all–but I think Company Town is an interesting and intriguing read, one that left me hoping more stories set in that world are forthcoming.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
Create sympathy for the protagonist as quickly and deeply as Ashby does: within very few pages, I was fully rooting for Hwa, intrigued by her story, and hoping to watch her succeed. That’s a pretty good sign for the beginning of a novel.