Plus One by Elizabeth Fama
My Rating: ★★★★
Sol was born into a world divided by day and night. Night dwellers are known as Smudges, and day dwellers are known as Rays. As a Smudge, Sol lives her life in the night. She is allowed to exit her home, work, and live her life at night. During the day, she must be home and inside unless she is given a Day Pass that allows. She’s never seen daylight except through a curtain. Sol’s grandfather, Poppu, is dying from terminal cancer and just wants to see his great granddaughter one time before he dies. However, she and Poppu haven’t seen her older brother since he was upgraded to being a day dweller, so there’s no way Poppu will be able to meet his granddaughter. Sol decides to purposely injure finger and abduct her newborn niece from the hospital and grant Poppu’s final wish, but things don’t go as planned. She finds herself under arrest and an official plus one of a day dweller with a baby who is not her niece.
I was excited to read this book for a long time, so let’s get the bad out of the way before I can get to all the good stuff. For some reason, the reasons behind people are either Smudges or Rays are not explained until about 32% into the book. This is a major world building snafu. There’s mention of a disease, and it’s clear that day and night dwelling is government enforced, but it’s not explained why that is until later. Why everyone lives this way doesn’t make a lot of sense until it’s finally explained. It’s unfortunate that this occurs so late in the book. What is this disease? Does it make people allergic to either sunlight or moonlight? And then if that’s the case, why is being a day dweller or night dweller government enforced? How can a day dweller become a night dweller and vice versa if it began as the result of a disease? These questions are not answered until well in the book, which overshadows the story as well as the world building that occurs up until this point.
Now that I’ve gotten the bad out of the way, let’s get to all of the good stuff. I love how incredibly complex the characters are. It’s clear that there’s a lot more behind the surface for every character we meet even if we won’t be seeing them again. It truly brings this world to life because everyone seems so real. I love how much this is explored with the main and supporting characters. Everyone has a backstory that impacts who they’ve become. They are so well developed that I can see how and why they are the way they are as each layer is revealed. It’s so refreshing to see this occur even with minor characters that aren’t featured for long.
At the end of the day, the two primary characters are teenagers and it’s clear in their thought process and the actions they choose to take. They’re on the cusp of adulthood and are forced to become adults early, but it’s clear that they’re teenagers deeply affected by the prejudiced world they live in. I like the way the story is resolved as well, and we’re left wondering if Sol and D’Arcy are ever able to connect again. We can also imagine the impact of their final bargain has on the world even if we don’t see it unfold on the story. All in all, this is a wonderful book that I plan on reading again.
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