Hosted by: Alex S

We'd love for you to join us in a constructive review of the first half of Viola's compelling novel, The Shifting, the first one in her YA cli-fi trilogy. The submission is about 50,000 words and the description of the novel is as follows: In the City under the dome, AlmaLabs is a savior. Fifteen years ago, its scientists discovered almanite, a miracle material that can become anything the City needs: food, walls, robots, electricity. Beyond the dome, the deadly fog has swallowed the world. Inside, everyone is told they are the lucky ones. Fourteen-year-old orphan Oliver has never believed in miracles. There are only mechanisms he doesn't understand yet, and almanite is the one he wants to crack. All he has left of his parents, who disappeared in the fog, is a small old robot Sensai. When a stranger's voice pours out of Sensai, calling from outside the dome, where no one should be alive, Oliver has a new question: what if his parents are alive too? The search for that voice leads him to ChameLeon, a faunaborg built from animal bones and machine parts. ChameLeon performs a real miracle. It dissolves almanite into dust and finds strange golden seeds hidden inside. And someone will do anything to keep that a secret. Now Dr. Amarantha Wilde, the brilliant head of AlmaLabs, is hunting them. And the closer Oliver gets to the truth about the miracle that built his world, and about the parents who left him, the less he can trust anyone, even the robot that raised him. Some truths can set a world free. Others can end it. The submission will be made available to all RSVPers approximately 6 weeks before the session. We look forward to having a fabulous session! Note:  - To participate in the novel review, you must have already attended one of our critique sessions. - If you haven't been to a critique session in a while, you can review our Rules of Engagement at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RKp0hisz-RSZgE1xF65DzUhOwRQZ6JqwAJ5fbAwrCwU.