Lamar Giles's The Getaway is an intense and unnerving YA dystopian novel that follows the life and struggles of a young Black man and his friends under a corporate dictatorship.
Much of the former United States has been devastated by wildfires, droughts and rising sea levels. As the outside world became increasingly unsafe, with protests, poverty, racism and mass violence, affluent survivors found a retreat in Karloff Country, a resort nestled in the mountains of Virginia. Seventeen-year-old Jay, his friends Zeke and Connie, and their family members all work as Karloff Country Helpers, living relatively comfortable lives while maintaining the resort as an oasis for ultra-wealthy residents from the former U.S. When the Trustees, an elite group of resort patrons, are given access to cruel and sadistic technology, they force the Helpers into what Jay's mom calls "modern slavery." Jay and his friends--including love interest Chelle, the heir to the Karloff fortune--must fight against the oppressive Karloff Corporation to win their freedom without losing their lives in the process.
Giles (Spin) here experiments with storytelling methods, using posters, social media posts and excerpts from fictional books to provide exposition while alternating first-person perspectives to provide glimpses into the minds of each main character. This arresting and engaging dystopian thriller interrogates the horrors of racism, classism, unregulated capitalism and eco-fascism. In his examination of these evils, Giles warns against the belief that slavery was a regrettable aspect of the United States' past, arguing that it could become a horrifying truth of the United States' future should those in power go unchecked. --Cade Williams, freelance reviewer and staff writer at the Harvard Independent