#Review - Sting by Cindy R. Wilson #YA / #Dystopian / #Romance

Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: March 3, 2020
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Dystopian

A thrilling mix of romance and revenge, Sting sheds light on the dark struggles of humanity as we follow one girl’s journey to regain balance between good and evil.

In the city of Victor, there is Dark and there is Light. The Lightsiders have wealth and privilege. The Darksiders have Temper, better known as the Scorpion. Every day is a fight for survival, one she faces willingly, risking her life to steal from the Light and give to the Dark.

Then one act of betrayal sends her straight into the arms of the law. Remove the Scorpion, remove its sting.

Everyone assumes she’s dead. But she’s been locked up in Decay, a prison reserved for the worst offenders. There she meets Pike, a former Lightsider with a lust for revenge rivaled only by Temper’s. Together, they form a plan to escape and take down those who wronged them.

In the depths of Decay, where they left her to rot, Temper grows stronger, fueled by her need for justice. She is still the Scorpion, and now her sting is deadly.

Author Cindy R. Wilson's Sting is a blend of sci-fi, romance, and thriller. Sting is also a blend of The Count of Monte Cristo and Robin Hood, but is its own story featuring a female protagonist/heroine. The characters are compelling and deal with issues that teens can relate to, such as broken relationships and learning to form new bonds of trust with others. The world-building takes the basic building blocks of dystopian sci-fi and gives it a fresh spin with unique cultural elements, technology, and drama.

In a place called Victor, 16-year old Tessa has been living on the streets of Darkside for the past 8 years. Darksiders have no jobs, little food, and are barely surviving. Meanwhile, Lightsiders have access to all the amenities that most civilized societies take for granted: electricity, food, clothing, cars, etc. Tessa has a good heart. She wants to help anyone she can. Her blood family may have died, but she has her own chosen family. Cass is the sister she never had and River is her best friend. She also has a Lightsider friend, Elle, who gives her information.  

Tessa goes by another name; Scorpion. Tessa and her friend River raid warehouses in order to prove food & supplies to the residents of Darkside who see her as a hero. Everyone is learning about Scorpion. Even Lightsiders know her name. People need a hero who wear's a ball cap as a mask, is deadly with knives, and who is mechanically brillaint when it comes to building robotic scorpions. So much so that when she is betrayed by a "friend," she's sent to a brutal place called Decay. 

Here she meets a boy named Pike, a former Lightsider Enforcer, who has been in the Decay for 13 months. Tessa aka Scorpion, must work with Pike, who has his own reasons for revenge, in order to prepare herself from the grind of working in a factory like environment, while also trying to avoid enforcers who have already told everyone that she's dead. Tessa & Pike soon gain the ear of a rather curious ally which leads to them escaping to the Lightside after uncovering a huge secret about their nemesis, Campbell.

In Lightside, Tessa is like a fish out of water. The overstimulation of her senses makes her yearn for the Darkside. She meets Pike's sister Jane who transforms Tessa into someone who can't be recognized. Without her ball cap to cover her identity, Tessa and Pike must figure out a way to gain their revenge against Campbell. The man who lines his pockets with free labor from the Decay. The man who has an axe to grind with the Darksiders. The man who left a scar on Tessa's face after she was caught stealing food. 

Pike admits that Tessa/Scorpion influenced what he did trying to expose the villain who is also the father of the "friend" who betrayed Tessa. With Jane and another Enforcer named Dean along for the ride, Tessa puts her plan in motion for one final act of rebellion before she can put her desire for vengeance behind her. In the meantime, Tessa finds herself falling for Pike while heartbroken over what became of her friend River. Some may say that there's a love triangle involved in this story. I don't think that's true. River, her BFF, was perhaps seen as a brother/best friend rather than a lover. Whereas, Pike is definitely the love interest since the two have things in common that River can't understand. 

This book is actually separated into two sections. The first section is from Tessa's experiences in the Darkside and the Decay, while the second section is Tessa's exploits in the city of Light, literally and figuratively. People wear so much light color that then glow. I actually enjoyed watching Tessa grow as a character from being the Scorpion, to learning how to forgive those who trangressed against her. I loved her connection to Cass. Cass is a Mini-Tessa with the attitude to back it up even though she's only 10! 

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