Callasandra Fractured
Callasandra Fractured is a dystopian YA novel.
Callasandra Fractured follows Cassi, a 16-year-old girl. Cassi’s father created a way to travel between dimensions. This information is naturally valuable to the right sort or really wrong sort of people, and the father and his family are pursued.
Assailants attack Cassi and her father. Cassi escapes, and together with her twin sister and mother, go into hiding.
As they are hiding, Cassi somehow travels to another dimension, Cimerrion, where she is captured and taken to a… well, I would call it a prison camp of sorts, but here in this world it is just the normal place for 16-year-olds to go.
The story is of Cassi hiding her other-dimensional origin and learning about Cimerrion. This is also where the title of the book comes from. Cassi starts to speak her real name to her captor, but instead changes it part way through, resulting in the name “Callasandra.” Cassi learns this other dimension is much darker than even her initial first impressions led her to believe, which were pretty dark. A girl is beaten and then branded (yes, like a cow) for being just little late to roll call. The girl’s family is punished as well, something you might imagine happening in North Korea.
In her time in Cimerrion, Cassi goes through what I might call “torture light”. The primary antagonist of the story Sergeant Leonard (one of the captors from before), suspends her in the air wearing just her underwear. This torture scene carries some strong sexual undertones, which since Cassi is 16, that is really rather gross. That said, Cassi emerges from the scene battered a bit but otherwise unharmed. She is not branded or harmed in a permanent way. Granted the story has an explanation for this, she is to be part of a group of elite entertainers and she needs to be unharmed for her future profession. Still, hinting at much worse fates than the one received made the punishment/ torturing a little hollow.
Adding to this image is the inclusion of secret stress relieving gum. Instead of a suicide pill, Cassi is given a gum that she can hide in her mouth that relieves stress. This is a tool that helps her lie in her interrogation while passing a lie detector. Granted, a suicide pill would just kill Cassi and end the story, so that wouldn’t be a good narrative device, but still, I’ve never heard of a stress relieving gum like this. Also, granted this is another dimension and the rebels that provided Cassi the gum have dealt with this situation many times before. That is, they help people who come to Cimerrion from other dimensions.
The story overall is quite compelling and fast paced, although it does slow down at times with some interesting details. For example, the author also has a keen eye for design and showcases some quite elaborate outfits. The book also shares details about Cimerrion and its history.
I think the overall plot is interesting. If the idea of a young woman hiding her identity in a strange other-dimension is interesting to you, I think this is a good book for you. Learning about the rebel group is also interesting. In some ways the book reminds me a bit of 1984, as both feature oppressive governments and secret underground movements. Learning about the world and the underground movements contributed greatly to the strength of the book.
Perspective: 3rd person
Tense: past
Length: 472 pages
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
https://www.amazon.com/
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