Birthright series by Gabrielle Zevin

Reviewed by Kristin

Bookblog readers may remember a few months ago I was reading and reviewing Gabrielle Zevin’s books Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.  More recently I finished Zevin’s Birthright series written for young adults.

Anya Balanchine is a sixteen-year-old Catholic schoolgirl living in our future—2083. In this near-future New York City, times are rough. Chocolate and coffee are illegal, and Anya is heir to the Balanchine crime family known for their chocolate. With her mother and father dead, her grandmother in failing health, and her older brother Leo considered a bit “simple” from an injury when he was a child, Anya must make many of the day-to-day decisions for herself and her siblings.

And oh yes, she apparently has a target on her back placed by a politically ambitious ADA who just happens to be the father of the cute new boy in school.

As with many young adult novels, everything is a little bit larger than life, but very believable once you have accepted the premise of the story. Water, fruits, and vegetables are scarce, and with the illegal aspect of chocolate thrown into the mix, Anya really is living in a post-apocalyptic world. She meets people from other chocolate families around the world, some from counties similar to the United States, and some others where chocolate is still freely available. She makes connections from Japan, Germany, and Mexico. Realistic for a sixteen to twenty-year-old, right? Just suspend your belief already, if you choose to pick up these books.

I really enjoyed the parts where Anya talks about hearing stories from her grandmother and great-grandmother. Back then, (in the early 2000s) they had races to see who could text the fastest. Anya thinks this is ridiculous, because why would anyone want to write messages to each other on a device, when they could just pick up a phone and call? Anya has a “slate” which is some sort of electronic tablet, although it’s usually just old people who use them to communicate.

With mobsters hiding in the shadows and potential love interests everywhere, Anya definitely has plenty to occupy her time in addition to her schoolwork. Despite the dangerous characters everywhere, Zevin does not include a lot of graphic violence. Sure, people are shot or knifed at once in a while, but only the bad guys find their troubles to be terminal. (Usually.)

Titles in the Birthright series: All These Things I’ve Done, Because It Is My Blood, and In the Age of Love and Chocolate.