The story is set in a dystopian future (always enjoyable for me to read), and the narrator is an orphaned teen who doesn't quite know where he fits in. So far, it sounds a lot like many other novels in the teen dystopian genre. But this teen lives in a land filled with waterless oceans of train tracks -- the railsea -- and he travels on a "ship" out hunting a giant white mole. The mole lives underneath the surface and is as elusive as he is large, but the ship is captained by a persistent, somewhat maniacal, woman who seeks the creature that devoured her hand (bonus Peter Pan reference).
The parallels to Moby Dick (especially considering the author's last name) make this a fascinating story of "sailing" on land hunting the captain's nemesis. But the narrator also develops his own quest -- to unravel a mystery revealed to him in a brief glimpse of pictures found in one of the wrecked ships the crew encounters. Along the way, he meets two other orphans who are smart, technologically savvy, and independent. They remind me of the children from A Series of Unfortunate Events or Pippi Longstocking. The three set off on a perilous journey to fulfill their own personal goals but end up discovering the peculiar origin of the Railsea.
If you like dystopian fiction and young adult novels, this book is sure to entertain -- it has a fun, familiar structure but is set in a unique and creative landscape. I am glad to have read it and would read it again -- but first, I need to reread Moby Dick (which I read as a teenager for school -- a long time ago!) so I can get all the subtle references that I am sure I missed this time around. Maybe that will be the next book on my list...
Here is a link to a review from NPR:
