Parable of the Sower

Recommended by a friend, I found this interesting. Like The Road, but with more people. A book about a preacher's kid, but with less hope and more pyromania. Like L. Ron Hubbard, but with less Dianetics. Hmmm, this one is hard to describe.

The world (or at least America) is falling apart, and this is a very on-the-ground report of that. The main character's parents are teachers, but they live in (and protect) a walled neighborhood. Just stepping outside has a risk for robbery, rape, and death. Apparently some people elsewhere have it better - but we never see things from their perspective. There is even an astronaut (and apparently a space program), but that storyline vanishes soon after introduction.

The family dynamics are a problem, and the protagonist has established her own basis for hope. She also has some mutation that allows her to feel others thoughts. These are just two more scattered other plots, on top of the others, and this bundle of threads make the novel a bit hard to focus on.

I've got the sequel (same friend), and may come back to this after the fact. Until then, a hopeful 3½ stars for this.