The Catford Catastrophe Zone by Petra Jacob – Review by Darla Yocom

The Catford Catastrophe Zone by Petra Jacob
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic dystopian story with a thrilling mysterious sci-fi adventure. In fact, it gave me a bit of a Blade Runner, High Castle, Mortal Engines vibes which I enjoyed.

The futuristic story follows Frankie who is desperate to get the big promotion at work. Up to that point she only received subtle hints of the possibility of a promotion. Yet when she finds her employer is desperate for someone to go undercover for a risky secret mission, she reluctantly agrees to visit the zone filled with the sick and poverty stricken citizens that never seem to make it back to the somewhat safer zones.

The moment she enters the Catford Zone, she immediately finds herself surrounded by a decomposing world in shambles, just like the withering population who have been long forgotten for those outside of the zone. Initially Frankie is paralyzed by the shock of her new surroundings. Then she decides to investigate and learn more about her housemates and how things work in her new surroundings. While she tries to do this and find something sufficiently interesting for her boss to allow her to return home she embarks on an incredible journey that she in no way could have dreamt of until now.

This was a good mind trip with an extremely well illustrated description of Frankie’s world. I enjoyed the eccentric and entertaining characters, flaws and all. I highly recommend this book.

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