LOOPHOLE

Hugie’s provocative work of speculative fiction is set in a world where people’s virtue is evident on their faces.

Recent high school graduate Alannah Merlot has a few months free before she begins classes in an art program at the local university. Wanting some experience in her future career field, she lands a temporary job as a staff assistant and part-time cartoonist at the same Colorado Springs magazine where her “goody two-shoes” brother, Tuck, works as an acclaimed journalist. Alannah’s penchant for finding loopholes in systems gets her into trouble when she begins to question how Visage—a mysterious mechanism that tracks people’s net morality by blemishing their skin to indicate transgressions—really works. Was a person with a clear complexion really a stalwart of moral living? Was a person whose skin was covered in gray splotches a criminal? While uncovering a grand-scale conspiracy involving corrupt government officials and the police, Alannah finds herself entangled in a deadly conflict involving anarchist criminals, a repressed homeless population being targeted by systemic injustice, and a group of vigilantes attempting to enforce social balance. Character development is a definite strength of the novel. The author brings Alannah alive; she’s an insightfully portrayed character with an irrepressible sense of humor and wit. The pacing is impressively brisk throughout, and the plot is intricate enough to keep readers on the edges of their seats. The complete lack of an explanation of Visage, however, is a problem. Why, and how, was it created? How does it work? Are humans implanted with a microchip at birth? Are people worldwide affected by Visage? This murky narrative vagueness radically undercuts the power of the story. The lack of elucidation grows more pronounced as the story transforms from what initially seems to be an SF-inflected government conspiracy yarn into a paranormal fantasy, replete with over-the-top characters with superpowers.

A thought-provoking story that suffers from a crisis of identity.