Publishers Weekly
In this thoughtful debut, Djanikian explores the disconnect between a utopian vision and its dystopian implementation. America-Five is one of several self-contained habitats built in an attempt to survive in an overcrowded and deprived world. Once the habitats’ settlers set off the Storm, the world’s population dropped from a staggering 59 billion to mere hundreds of thousands. Three hundred years later, population is tightly controlled both within and outside the settlements, with each habitat’s Office of Mercy benevolently killing members of the starving, scrounging outside tribes to ease their suffering. Natasha Wiley, a young citizen assigned to the Office of Mercy, knows empathy will only get in the way of her necessary work, but when she comes into close contact with one of the tribes, her reaction sets off world-changing events. Despite the emphasis on human emotion, Djanikian’s approach is more cerebral than emotionally satisfying, and readers may respond by trying to poke holes in the intriguing premise rather than enjoying the ride. Agent: Jenni Ferrari-Adler, Brick House. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
As Orwell knew, the best dystopian fiction is close enough to reality to make it scarily believable. . . . It's the same way in Ariel Djanikian's thrilling debut The Office of Mercy. . . . At its heart, The Office of Mercy is a thriller. . . . Scary and realistic. . . Fast-paced. . . Exciting to read. . . . With Natasha, Djanikian has crafted a hero who is memorable precisely because of her imperfections. . . . It's fascinating, and at times heartbreaking, to witness her incremental growth as she begins to question everything she's been taught. It takes a blend of intelligence and compassion to pull off that kind of convincing character arc, but it also takes great authorial skill. . . . The Office of Mercy is an indisputable page turner with a surprising ending — and crafting prose. . . . The stunning, willfully oblivious cruelty of America-Five is chilling because of its plausibility — you don't have to look past our own history for examples of mass slaughter, eugenics and euphemized government propaganda. It's hard to miss the echoes of Orwell in Djanikian's dark vision of both the past and the future.”
—Michael Schaub, npr.org
“ A cool and compelling dystopian bildungsroman from a debut author we imagine we’ll be hearing a lot more from.”
—Emily Temple, Flavorwire
“A remarkable coming-of-age dystopian novel, fast-paced and thought provoking throughout.”
—Largehearted Boy
“[A] horrifically brutal, compelling debut. . . . A grim muse on a future with shades of The Hunger Games, Djanikian’s first offering should attract readers voracious for this popular subgenre.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“The title of Ariel Djanikian’s first book, The Office of Mercy, is as disturbing as it is ironically fitting. Using a fresh, effortless descriptive style, Djanikian projects us into a futuristic world wiped clean by a man-made devastation called the Storm. . . . Djanikian puts us through the ethical ringer. . . . Which isn’t to say there’s not also a good deal of juice here, too—Natasha totally bust an actual move on her superior, as opposed to resorting to passive cybering.”
—Whitney Dwire, Bust magazine
“Fascinating. . . . Djanikian’s fictitious world combines both the horrifying consequences of ethnic cleansing with the bright new hope of how much one person can do to change history. Both believable and chilling, this tale transports readers to a futuristic utopic life where good and evil mingle with equal opportunity and are often indistinguishable to the characters. This intriguing slice of future drama ends much too soon, and will leave readers begging for a sequel, if not a series.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“[Djanikian] truly shines by plunging her characters into existential crises as they question and finally confront the foundations on which their lives are built. Fans of sci-fi and speculative fiction will enjoy this adventurous exploration of human nature.”
—Tobias Mutter, Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Intriguing premise. . . . In this thoughtful debut, Djanikian explores the disconnect between a utopian vision and its dystopian implementation. . . . Natasha Wiley, a young citizen assigned to the Office of Mercy, knows empathy will only get in the way of her necessary work, but when she comes into close contact with one of the tribes, her reaction sets off world-changing events.”
—Publishers Weekly
“If you think a future world without suffering would be a good thing, Ariel Djanikian will convince you to reconsider in her impressive debut The Office of Mercy. Gripping, well-plotted, and boasting a fascinating setting, this utterly engrossing tale is thoughtful and surprising. Djanikian's adroit writing turns the elements of the dystopian novel on their head, and the central character’s struggles in America-Five were, by turns, both starkly foreign and hauntingly familiar.”
—Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night
“I gulped this startlingly smart debut down, unable to stop before I found out what happened to brave Natasha and her America-Five compatriots.”
—Emma Straub, author of Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures
“The Office of Mercy confronts us with a portrait of a smoothly heartless world that’s viscerally imagined, increasingly harrowing, and beautifully moving. As we continue to squander or destroy the finite resources our planet has remaining, and the gap between the elite and the trampled continues to widen, the heartbreaking and chilling vision that Ariel Djanikian outlines starts to seem like our most—if not our only— plausible future.”
—Jim Shepard, author of Like You’d Understand, Anyway
“Ariel Djanikian has written a novel of strange and stirring passions. Her dystopia is familiar to us because it is the land of our nightmares, our myths, and histories—yet Djanikian infuses it with startling novelty. The writing is both languidly sensual and suspenseful. This novel ushers in an important new voice.”
—Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World
“An action-packed novel of fascinating ideas set in a fully-imagined world that is both alluring and terrifying. Serious, entertaining, and seriously entertaining.”
—Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
all
As Orwell knew, the best dystopian fiction is close enough to reality to make it scarily believable. . . . It's the same way in Ariel Djanikian's thrilling debut The Office of Mercy. . . . At its heart, The Office of Mercy is a thriller. . . . Scary and realistic. . . Fast-paced. . . Exciting to read. . . . With Natasha, Djanikian has crafted a hero who is memorable precisely because of her imperfections. . . . It's fascinating, and at times heartbreaking, to witness her incremental growth as she begins to question everything she's been taught. It takes a blend of intelligence and compassion to pull off that kind of convincing character arc, but it also takes great authorial skill. . . . The Office of Mercy is an indisputable page turner with a surprising ending — and crafting prose. . . . The stunning, willfully oblivious cruelty of America-Five is chilling because of its plausibility — you don't have to look past our own history for examples of mass slaughter, eugenics and euphemized government propaganda. It's hard to miss the echoes of Orwell in Djanikian's dark vision of both the past and the future.”
—Michael Schaub, npr.org
“ A cool and compelling dystopian bildungsroman from a debut author we imagine we’ll be hearing a lot more from.”
—Emily Temple, Flavorwire
“A remarkable coming-of-age dystopian novel, fast-paced and thought provoking throughout.”
—Largehearted Boy
“[A] horrifically brutal, compelling debut. . . . A grim muse on a future with shades of The Hunger Games, Djanikian’s first offering should attract readers voracious for this popular subgenre.”
—Booklist(starred review)
“The title of Ariel Djanikian’s first book, The Office of Mercy, is as disturbing as it is ironically fitting. Using a fresh, effortless descriptive style, Djanikian projects us into a futuristic world wiped clean by a man-made devastation called the Storm. . . . Djanikian puts us through the ethical ringer. . . . Which isn’t to say there’s not also a good deal of juice here, too—Natasha totally bust an actual move on her superior, as opposed to resorting to passive cybering.”
—Whitney Dwire, Bust magazine
“Fascinating. . . . Djanikian’s fictitious world combines both the horrifying consequences of ethnic cleansing with the bright new hope of how much one person can do to change history. Both believable and chilling, this tale transports readers to a futuristic utopic life where good and evil mingle with equal opportunity and are often indistinguishable to the characters. This intriguing slice of future drama ends much too soon, and will leave readers begging for a sequel, if not a series.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“[Djanikian] truly shines by plunging her characters into existential crises as they question and finally confront the foundations on which their lives are built. Fans of sci-fi and speculative fiction will enjoy this adventurous exploration of human nature.”
—Tobias Mutter, Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Intriguing premise. . . . In this thoughtful debut, Djanikian explores the disconnect between a utopian vision and its dystopian implementation. . . . Natasha Wiley, a young citizen assigned to the Office of Mercy, knows empathy will only get in the way of her necessary work, but when she comes into close contact with one of the tribes, her reaction sets off world-changing events.”
—Publishers Weekly
“If you think a future world without suffering would be a good thing, Ariel Djanikian will convince you to reconsider in her impressive debut The Office of Mercy. Gripping, well-plotted, and boasting a fascinating setting, this utterly engrossing tale is thoughtful and surprising. Djanikian's adroit writing turns the elements of the dystopian novel on their head, and the central character’s struggles in America-Five were, by turns, both starkly foreign and hauntingly familiar.”
—Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night
“I gulped this startlingly smart debut down, unable to stop before I found out what happened to brave Natasha and her America-Five compatriots.”
—Emma Straub, author of Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures
“The Office of Mercy confronts us with a portrait of a smoothly heartless world that’s viscerally imagined, increasingly harrowing, and beautifully moving. As we continue to squander or destroy the finite resources our planet has remaining, and the gap between the elite and the trampled continues to widen, the heartbreaking and chilling vision that Ariel Djanikian outlines starts to seem like our most—if not our only— plausible future.”
—Jim Shepard, author of Like You’d Understand, Anyway
“Ariel Djanikian has written a novel of strange and stirring passions. Her dystopia is familiar to us because it is the land of our nightmares, our myths, and histories—yet Djanikian infuses it with startling novelty. The writing is both languidly sensual and suspenseful. This novel ushers in an important new voice.”
—Laura Kasischke, author of In a Perfect World
“An action-packed novel of fascinating ideas set in a fully-imagined world that is both alluring and terrifying. Serious, entertaining, and seriously entertaining.”
—Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Library Journal
Life in America-Five, one of many dome-covered settlements that cross what was once America, is controlled, clean, and safe. Citizens of the settlement are taught that they have moved beyond the harshness of nature, the uncertainties of biology, that they are the pinnacle of the human species. Natasha Wiley believes the doctrine of her community without question and has the privilege of working in the settlement’s Office of Mercy. Her task is to end the suffering of all humans left outside the dome. When Natasha is allowed out on a rare mission, her encounters with one of the remaining tribes of humans lead her to question all she has been taught, including the very core of her beliefs—her identity.
Verdict Remarkably, Djanikian’s debut novel leads us to find sympathy, even understanding, with Natasha’s culture. Just as we are aware that the settlement’s “Office of Mercy” is essentially a euphemism for genocide, we feel Natasha’s conflicts among what she has been taught, those she loves, and her changing understanding of right and wrong. Billed as a YA crossover dystopian novel, this book makes for an interesting read that will appeal to fans of Julianna Baggott’s “Pure” trilogy as well as the dystopian fiction of Margaret Atwood and Justin Cronin. [See Prepub Alert, 8/9/13.]—Jennifer Beach, Cumberland Cty. P.L., VA
(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
AUGUST 2013 - AudioFile
Natasha Wiley lives in America-Five, a high-tech underground utopian settlement in which hunger and money don’t exist, everyone has a job, and all basic needs are met. The residents of America-Five wear "biosuits," and babies are gestated in "incuvats"; committing murder outside the community is euphemistically known as "sweeping" the tribes. Emily Zeller delivers the combination of love, science, and philosophy in this debut novel with empathy and compassion. She uses pacing and volume to distinguish the many unique characters involved in Natasha’s life as she’s forced to make a choice that may put the people she loves in grave danger. Listeners of all ages will be engrossed by the stylish narration as well as the futuristic drama and surprise ending. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
A fascinating view of a post-apocalyptic America, penned by a first-time novelist. Natasha lives in America-Five, one of the domed, indoor settlements created by survivors of what is referred to as "the Storm," which left the world decimated. Those housed inside the Dome live in a world without want or even death. Food, shelter and health care are provided to the carefully cultivated generations that dwell inside, while those who live on the "Outside" struggle with the elements, as well as hunger, danger and disease. But the elders of the America settlements have seen fit to provide their laboratory-generated succeeding generations with a guidebook that explains the colony's ethics. They believe in killing what they refer to as "Tribes" in order to prevent their suffering. Natasha works in the Office of Mercy, the division in charge of staging and carrying out "sweeps," which is what America-Five calls the mass killings. When a group of tribesmen destroy some of the sensors used to launch sweeps, Natasha's immediate supervisor, Jeffrey, taps her for the mission to reset the sensors. That means Natasha must venture outside the Dome, risking contamination from an uncontrolled atmosphere but also seeing firsthand the people she's been tracking all of her adult life. Something takes place on that mission that causes Natasha to reassess her beliefs, and it affects both her view of the tribes as well as the philosophical position of the Dome's leaders. Djanikian's fictitious world combines both the horrifying consequences of ethnic cleansing with the bright new hope of how much one person can do to change history. Both believable and chilling, this tale transports readers to a futuristic utopian life where good and evil mingle with equal opportunity and are often indistinguishable to the characters. This intriguing slice of future drama ends much too soon and will leave readers begging for a sequel, if not a series.
