Gutter Child by Jael Richardson

Gutter Child by Jael Richardson was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021. It is a dystopian or speculative fiction novel. Elimina is 14 when this book starts. She is a gutter child, and a special project because she has grown up on the mainland with her mother. Her mother dies and Elimina is sent to an academy where her world is turned upside down because she doesn’t feel she belongs there and has never felt like a gutter child.

Elimina has grown up in a world divided between the gutter people and the mainlanders. The gutter people must work for mainlanders to pay off extraordinary debts.

This story touches upon so many important topics: class, a society that has a system that benefits some over others, oppression, difficult decisions that have to be made and the consequences that come from those decisions. It’s also a story of survival, resiliency and perseverance. This is an imaginary world but it has so many parallels to our own world that it’s disturbing.

Bookworm Rating: 🐛🐛🐛🐛