Saba is content with her life in Silverlake, but she'd be content anywhere as long as her twin brother Lugh is around. Their father is a little strange, seeking answers from the stars, but he's harmless, mostly (maybe just too caught in his own past). Their little sister, Emmi, is annoying (though Lugh really believes Saba needs to lay off Emmi; the two girls just do not get along). They struggle for survival near their dried-up lake, but that struggle takes a turn when a violent sandstorm blows in not only copious red dust but also four riders. Riders who take Lugh and kill Pa. Saba sets off on a quest to find her brother, a quest that will take her far from Silverlake and the life she knew, introducing her to the hardness and anger at her core. 
 Occasional references to Wrecker cities, Wrecker tech, etc, at the only indications we get that this is set in a post-apocalyptic world, not just Anytown, Fantasyland. The post-apocalyptic connection isn't really strong enough to classify it as such, in my head, but it's a natural choice for teens who liked The Hunger Games, or adults who liked The Road. Lots of fighting, hand-to-hand combat; the searching and wandering; the epic quest to find someone; strong female characters (by which I mean physically strong, ass-kicking women, not fully-developed inner-strength types, because there's not a ton of character development in general)... there's a lot to recommend this book, and yet I don't really see a lot of teens gravitating toward it. It's really long and written in dialect (on audio, it's fine; not sure if I'd have made it through reading it), and the cover does the action/adventure-heavy plot no favors. The narrator (Saba) isn't particularly likable. Saba and her friends frequently avoid certain death by the timely (and predictable) arrival of deus ex machinas. It's an engrossing story, once it gets going; well-paced and well-written, but it has a lot to overcome before it can get to those selling points. I didn't hate the book, and I was all set to give it 4 stars, but there were just too many things that were SO OBVIOUS and annoying. And (view spoiler)[ they never did go back to return Mercy's horse, like Emmi claimed she would. It was never even a THOUGHT, even though Saba TOLD Emmi she basically doomed Mercy by taking the horse in the first place. "We could go back there," Saba suggests at the end. "Hells to the no," respond her siblings. (hide spoiler)] 
 And first in a series. Of course it is. Though if Book 2 is all the Magical Romance of two characters finding their way to each other again, I may just barf.