Her membership in the Resourceful Couriers allows her to continue living a nomad’s life. Now she’s part of a band of smugglers, the Resourceful Couriers. As a child, Mouth was raised by the Citizens, a nomadic sect that was wiped out. Mouth has lived on the road most of her life. Mouth’s sections are narrated in third person and past tense.
Sophie’s first person, present-tense narration is the dominant viewpoint in the book but another viewpoint is interspersed with it, that of Mouth, a hardened, even brutish woman. Acid rains have injured them and will, unless prevented, continue to.
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Eventually Rose reveals something Sophie has no idea how to help with: the Gelet’s young ones are suffering. Sophie tries to repay Rose in small ways.
Rose provides her with a bracelet that is a kind of homing beacon and can signal to Sophie that the Gelet are nearby. It’s her fear of the police that keeps her from risking a visit to Bianca’s well-lit part of town to tell her friend that she survived. Even though Sophie starts to feel safer she must hide and she occasionally relives the nightmarish police arrest in panic attacks. It’s a place where one can, if only briefly, leave timefulness behind. Sophie finds shelter and a job at an unusual establishment her late mother frequented, a restaurant that customers visit for its calm atmosphere. Rose keeps Sophie warm and in the morning Sophie is able to sneak back into Xiosphant. Sophie learns that the Gelet, as she comes to call Rose and others of her species, are sentient and intelligent that they have a sophisticated society in a hidden metropolis, a city in the middle of the night. But Rose saves Sophie and communicates with her via sensations and images transmitted through touch. The “crocodiles” on January are known to be vicious and deadly and occasionally they are hunted for food. Rose, as Sophie later names her, is not remotely like a crocodile that’s just the derogatory name that humans have given her species. Or rather, a native of January it’s the human colonists who are the true aliens on this planet. It’s a death sentence and a cruel one no human is known to have survived the extreme cold of night.īut Sophie is rescued unexpectedly by a “crocodile,” an alien being. The police drag Sophie to the city gates and push her past the dark side of Xiosphant into January’s night side and then lock the gate behind her. When the police interrupt the meeting to arrest the culprit, Sophie moves the food coupons into her own pocket so that Bianca’s bright future won’t be tarnished.īianca is devastated and guilt-stricken by Sophie’s arrest.
On the way there Bianca steals food coupons on a lark. She invites Sophie to come to a meeting of pro-revolution young people. Sophie, shy and unassuming, hangs on Bianca’s every word, partly due to Bianca’s charisma, partly because Sophie believes Bianca is destined to be a leader and partly because Sophie is in love with her.īianca flirts with the idea of overthrowing the Xiosphanti government. Sophie’s roommate, Bianca, comes from an exalted family and is sure to someday reach a position in the city’s upper echelons. Sophie, a dark-skinned girl from the poor side of town, has managed to gain admission to the gymnasium, an exclusive academy attended by light-skinned and privileged kids. This practice compensates for the absence for natural signals of the approach of day or night but it also supports an oppressive regime. “Timefulness” is fervently adhered to by the vast majority of people. Curfews are strictly enforced and shutters must be up or down at an exact time. Losing track of time is literally a crime in Xiosphant. In the small temperate zone where night and day meet lies Xiosphant, a city of people descended from human colonists. This book takes place on a January, a tidally locked planet, meaning that one side of the planet always faces the sun and on the other side it’s always dark. Janine Book Reviews / C Reviews #ownvoices / aliens / bigotry / environmentalism / far future / LGBTQIA+ / POC / Science Fiction / SF / Smugglers / students 5 Comments FebruREVIEW: The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
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