Review: Built on Ruins by Kate S. Toll

“He didn’t know that forgiving could be a physical sensation.” —Chap 12

Blurb:

Generations after The End, there are two ways of living — Gangs of scavengers roam the Wilds and hunt for relics of lost times, while the re-settlers spend their lives building a new civilization on the ruins of the old. Jan Xiaoli is the leader of Ryningare City — one of the largest and most prosperous settlements this side of the Rift. With the purist movement growing stronger, the scavengers getting more hostile, and the incurable disease spreading, ruling the city feels like sitting on a ticking time bomb.

When he meets Shi Saxe, the infamous Vulture, who lives alone in the Wilds, Jan Xiaoli feels as though the storm raging around him is sneaking its way into his heart as well.

Review:

Story

When I first started reading Built on Ruins by Kate S. Toll, I was looking for a slightly more light-hearted post-apocalyptic story. No, to be honest, I had no idea what I was looking for but this is what this story delivered and it is exactly what I needed. For a bit there, as I was reading and immersing myself into this world, it actually felt a bit like a slice-of-life story - there wasn’t a single antagonist to focus on, there was a budding romance between our two main characters, and there was stuff happening that felt like a natural progression in the world.

There were a few time jumps which, at first, threw me off - but they only threw me off because I kept wanting the time between our characters meeting to be shorter and shorter. From a plot standpoint, they made sense and would have been confusing otherwise. What started as a slice-of-life story for me, turned into an adventure shared by our main characters, some dark secrets and a truly depressing past story, into hopes, dreams, and just… so much progression both from a character standpoint and a world. 

Something that I really appreciated was that neither of our two main characters had to be the main characters in any of the events that transpired. I know that may seem weird, but personally, I’m not a fan of the “fated chosen one” or similar tropes. I like to see the regular person taking on the adventure. For me, either of the two characters could have been replaced with anyone else introduced in the world. I’m glad they weren’t! But they could have been. Having said that, there were two events later on that happened specifically because of the characters’ histories, but it didn’t feel like the standard setup for main characters. 

And it’s so hard not to spoil my favourite part since it is not mentioned at all in the blurb or any of the marketing materials I’ve seen, but basically the last one-third of the book threw me in for a twist that I did not expect at all. It was so well designed, with just enough lead into it without throwing me off guard. I am a little sad this wasn’t mentioned, even as a possibility, in the blurb, but it was a definite good change of pace. In my opinion, it brought so much power to the ending of the book, giving me a climax and a resolution that I didn’t know I expected.

Basically, everything about this book was something I didn’t expect, but it was exactly what I needed at the time. 

Characters

While Kate introduced and focused on our two main characters, Jan Xiaoli - the leader of a resettlement community, and Shi Saxe - a scavenger famed for his skills, they were not the only ones that stood out. The story is about the two of them, obviously, but I truly appreciate that it wasn’t just about them. As I mentioned, I am a fan of the fact that both of these characters seem regular. 

Yes, one of them is a leader - but he is not one because he was born into it, it is something that he worked for and had friends along his side helping him out both before and after gaining the position. And while the other one had his own dark past and was seen as different from the rest of his type (scavengers), the more we learn about him as readers, the more we realize that he really isn’t that special - in fact, we meet other characters who share his past and what makes him unique. 

On that note, the entire story is told from Jan Xiaoli’s point of view, so we enter the world with his mindset and as readers, our points and views of the people entering into this world are the same as Jan Xiaoli’s. As mentioned, the unique and memorable vulture ends up becoming just a regular man the more we learn about him. And the more Jan Xiaoli learns about scavengers, in general, the more we learn about them and how they are not so different from the different factions within the resettler communities. 

And also, Kate did a very good job of not specifying it explicitly (in my opinion), but I’m pretty sure most of the characters in the book are non-white. In fact, I think there is only one who was specified as such. Now, there are a few that could be coded as white, but once I got into the rhythm of the main characters and their main supporting cast, to me it read like this is a world that was focused on the minorities of our current world, both in regards to race and sexual preferences. And, more importantly, it was considered the norm. This was a nice surprise. 

Speaking of sexual preferences - kudos on the growing relationship between the two leads and how naturally it progresses. There was just enough back and forth, enough doubts and should I/shouldn’t I to keep me entertained, while also taking it to a nice level of spice that felt natural with the story’s progression. 

Setting

I have to admit, I did not miss the zombies. I love post-apocalyptic stories and I do think one of my favourite things about them is how humanity falls. I know, kind of mean, but it’s that struggle against a force that seems overwhelming and impossible that draws me in. Built on Ruins? This book makes me question why I like post-apocalyptic stories. It is after the end of the world, but there aren’t any infections, mutations, zombies, viruses, etc. that are so prevailing in this genre. In fact, the biggest worries seem to be, humanity itself. Yes, there is a disease, but it is not at all written or portrayed as anything that could resemble those common themes and tropes I’m so used to (in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a simple cold virus or something).

For me, this story felt like a breath of fresh air. If there is any comparison I can think of, it would be the tv show - Revolution. Just a few hundred years later. The differences between the two types of societies is shown in such an interesting way - broken up into settlers and scavengers - but each of those wide categories have their smaller sections inside them to give them more intrigue and depth. Nothing about the way the world was set up was flat - even when something completely new gets introduced later on - it fits. 

The only thing that would have made me question the world is actually the blurb. I feel like the blurb focused more on the idea of the purists as an antagonistic force, rather than the actual events that happen in the book. Having said that, I do love the direction Kate S. Toll took it, and I really appreciate the decisions she made when building up this story and creating this world.