In fifteen-year-old Adrian Havoc’s world, Homestate rules every aspect of society: identity cards need to be carried at all times, evolution is a forbidden topic of discussion, and religious education is enforced in daily “rapture” doses. If life weren’t hard enough, now come the threats that the end of the world—SHIFT—is quickly approaching. But Adrian refuses to accept things as they are. He sets out for the toxic Deadlands on a trip that may very well alter the course of the universe.

In this powerful, thought-provoking and by turns humorous novel, Charlotte Agell uncovers the painful consequences of war and uncertain governments in an imagined—yet disturbingly realistic—world.