The war against demons wiping out a large percentage of the human population with those remaining living in walled towns and cities, always on guard against the possessed. TV show Dominion appears to share the same world with The Stars Never Rise. Procreation is under strict control and punishments are lethal and very, very public. Propaganda is ever present and self-determination is pure fantasy. Church and state are one and the same after an apocalyptic event. There are some striking similarities to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. (Understatement.) To make matters worse Nina accidentally kills her mother (there’s alot more to it than that) and goes on the run, painted as a demon-possessed serial killer by the Church.
What Nina doesn’t bank on is Melanie’s rebellious nature culminating in an unplanned and illegal pregnancy that Melanie’s desperate to keep despite the challenges ahead. As it appears their mother won’t make it to Melanie’s 18th, Nina reluctantly plans to pledge a lifetime of servitude to the Church in order to keep Melanie out of an orphanage for the next three years. In a strictly controlled environment, Nina days away from her 17th birthday and 15-year-old sister Melanie have to be careful to obey the rules lest the all powerful Unified Church find out their mother is a crackhead sinner which would see them sent to a children’s home. Demons are walking the streets wearing humans like clothes while quietly consuming their souls.
The Hunger Games was “just” a dystopia, this is also urban fantasy.
A neglectful mother who is rarely seen or heard, a big sister who has to do everything she can to put food on the table and clothes on their backs while also taking care of her younger sister. I feel that distinction has to be made early on because I was very close to dismissing The Stars Never Rise as such and putting it down because the beginning is the same, albeit more brutally realistic.
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