Gutter Child Review

Photo Courtesy of HarperCollins Canada

Content warning: death of a parent, racism, hate crime, mental illness, suicide, infant death, death of a child, miscarriage, sexual assault

Jael Richardson’s debut dystopian fiction novel Gutter Child has gained traction on Instagram making it a popular choice among readers on the internet. Gutter Child is set in a dystopian world that is divided into the privileged Mainland and the Gutter, a heavily policed area. Elimina was one of 100 children taken from the Gutter and raised by a Mainland woman. After her Mainland mother dies, Ellimina finally begins to learn about the truth of the Gutter and where she is from.

While it is a timely read, Gutter Child missed the mark for me in some aspects. The characters lacked development and were quite one dimensional. Elimina was the exception to this, she was well fleshed out and quite interesting to read about. Along with lack of characterization the plot felt a little all over the place and the dialogue was quite repetitive at times.There was also a lot of time jumping and it wasn’t always clear until well into a section. To be honest I was quite bored reading this one.

Gutter Child touches on a lot of timely and important themes including race, class, privilege, identity, and colonization. Richardson has done a fantastic job at making these themes present all throughout the novel which encourages conversations between readers. The writing read more like a young adult book than general fiction. My expectations were high with this one but Gutter Child just didn’t hold my interest like other books I’ve read this year. Even though it was not my favourite, Gutter Child is incredibly timely and recommended to those who enjoy young adult fiction and coming-of-age stories.

Gutter Child Summary

Set in an imagined world in which the most vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society, Gutter Child uncovers a nation divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. In this world, Elimina Dubois is one of only 100 babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity as part of a social experiment led by the Mainland government.

But when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina finds herself all alone, a teenager forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs. Elimina is sent to an academy with new rules and expectations where she befriends Gutter children who are making their own way through the Gutter System in whatever ways they know how. When Elimina’s life takes another unexpected turn, she will discover that what she needs more than anything may not be the freedom she longs for after all.

Richardson’s Gutter Child reveals one young woman’s journey through a fractured world of heartbreaking disadvantages and shocking injustices. Elimina is a modern heroine in an altered but all too recognizable reality who must find the strength within herself to forge her future and defy a system that tries to shape her destiny.

Summary from HarperCollins Canada