Sting by Cindy R. Wilson (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Entangled Publishing, LLC on March 3rd 2020
Genres: Dystopian, General, Romance, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 400
They call me the Scorpion because they don’t know who I really am. All they know is that someone is stealing from people with excess to help people with nothing survive another day.
But then a trusted friend reveals who I am—“just” Tessa, “just” a girl—and sends me straight into the arms of the law. All those people I helped…couldn’t help me when I needed it.
In prison, I find an unlikely ally in Pike, who would have been my enemy on the outside. He represents everything I’m against. Luxury. Excess. The world immediately falling for his gorgeous smile. How he ended up in the dirty cell next to mine is a mystery, but he wants out as much as I do. Together, we have a real chance at escape.
With the sting of betrayal still fresh, Pike and I will seek revenge on those who wronged us. But uncovering all their secrets might turn deadly…
Sting is the first book I’ve read by Cindy Wilson but it won’t be the last. This book has some interesting characters and a story that kept me turning the pages to see what was going to happen next.
I thought the world building in this book was done well. In Victor, you have the Darkside where people are cutoff from electricity and basic things needed to survive and then you have The Light District where everything is, as you can imagine, bright and lively. There are parties and shopping, and no one really knows about the challenges the Darkside go through. Of course, this sets the stage for the story.
Scorpion (Tessa) is our main character and she has been on her own for a while living amongst the Darksiders. She’s known as Scorpion because of the scorpion bots she uses to scope out areas and she does what she can for those around her and there are a few people that she will do anything for because they have become her family over time. I thought Wilson did a good job of reflecting the relationship that Tessa had with each of these characters. Elle is the daughter of a powerful man in the Light District but opposed to the way things are run, Cass is essentially her little sister, and River is the boy she has feelings for but is afraid to really analyze what those feelings really mean.
Over time, Tessa has built a bit of a reputation amongst the people in the Dark District and that means that the leaders of The Light District see her as a danger and they have begun to make the missions she goes on to get supplies much more risky now that the Enforcers are out searching for her. When one of the people she trusted most betrays her, Tessa sacrifices her freedom to save Cass. This puts her a prison called Decay and under the watch of some very questionable men.
In prison, Tessa meets Pike. Pike has been in Decay for a while, but he has a plan to get out and now that Tessa is there, he decides she will be the perfect person to help him. As Tessa learns to navigate the prison, she realizes that her mechanical knowledge is what is going to help her get the warden to loosen up on her monitoring. By doing this, she sometimes gets a bit more freedom and that means she and Pike also have a bit more space to finalize their plan to escape and when they do, they find themselves trying to hide out in The Light District.
Once they get to the Light District, Tessa doesn’t know who she can trust from her old life. The one thing she does know is that she needs to find Cass. When the people in her new life begin to mix with those of her old life, she realizes just how much she has changed. I thought Wilson did a good job of reflecting the growth Tessa goes through over the course of the book. She’s not as standoffish and doesn’t try to hold herself apart from others. I also thought that Pike really balanced her out – he pushed her to not be so reactionary and while she didn’t always listen, it did start to influence her actions.
In the end, the story was one that kept me interested. The characters were developed well and while I questioned some pieces (i.e. how easy it was to get out of Decay), I thought the story was well done. I know I didn’t give a ton of detail in this review, and that is mostly because I think you should read the book and I also don’t like to give anything away. Just know that if you are looking for a Dystopian book with interesting characters, a bit of romance, and good overcoming evil, consider picking this one up.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
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