Man, what a bummer! My students have always really liked the Graceling Realm series, so I thought this one might be promising, especially since it has a really great and eye-catching cover. Whew -- maybe not so much. The exaggerated political slant is a little more than most teens care to ingest. "National trauma" during those four years? Again, whew. I know teens crave the dark and depressing reads, it seems, but after reading the First Look of this one, I think my readers would say it's a hard pass. It's like an SNL sketch of "Debbie Downer".