Broken City by D. D. Chant

Deeta Richards has never seen the outside world. Before she was born a banking crisis brought civilization to an end and now no one leaves the safety of the compounds unless they need to, but Deeta still dreams of seeing more than the building she was born in.
Tom is in the guard, this group are the only people that the tribal elders allow to leave the compound and tom knows only too well that Deeta could never survive the harshness that exists outside. Then tragedy strikes and Deeta and her sister Jan find themselves captured by a hostile tribe. Why does Tom know so much about these people? And why do they know so much about him? As this mystery draws to a climax, they discover that their friend Tom is not quite what he seems...

This is a wonderfully original view of a post-apocalyptic world, which is sure to be a big hit with all lovers of that style of books.

The world building the author has done really makes all the difference. She’s written a carefully structured story in a type of military city that is fascinating to read about. There are just enough details to keep the reader interested but not overwhelming explanations of how this particular “world” works, so we don’t feel like we are bombarded with information. We are not distracted from the main story.

The characters are quite fun. Tom, in particular, was one of the ones I liked best. He is quiet and mysterious, complete opposite to Deeta, the protagonist. Their interactions were written well.  

The book did start off a bit slow, but as the story continued, the pace really picked up. There are many wonderful moments in the book that. The writer uses a bit of one of my favorite literary techniques, the unreliable narrator, which is very hard to use convincingly and she succeeded, so she deserved definite credit for that.

All in all, this one is a fun addition to the dystopian genre and I do recommend it.