In Neom the laws of physics are lax and everyone still gets high. The city squares do it so they can keep working non-stop. The hipsters do it so they can accept things as they are and not how they want them to be. And for a thousand years, Alison has done it to cope with the burdens of immortality. If you can't die, she says, at least you can be as stoned as the living dead.

So begins The Blue Kind, a dystopian drug-fantasy that unfolds in the apocalyptic debris of an all but unrecognizable American city. In the wake of Drug War II, all the soldiers have become dealers and all the women have become collateral for the intoxicants they both peddle and pop like Skittles. But a powerful new drug is rumored to top them all, one that will fix everything wrong with Alison's life, but one that is cooked and sold by her fiercest adversary: a dealer who threatens to destroy her entire world.

Brimming with a rich and labyrinth plot, indelible characters, and an unforgettable ending, The Blue Kind is as wild a ride as they come: a free-wheeling read about the cycle of addiction that is, itself, addictive.

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Irony, parody, and homage, including echoes of William Burroughs and of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, abound in this darkly fascinating, heart-rending mind-bender. By agilely combining a touch of literary fantasy and acute emotional realism, Born succeeds in creating a strikingly atmospheric, suspenseful, imaginative, and compassionate novel.