MALL, by Pattie Palmer-Baker
Imagine a place where everyone is beautiful. A world filled with sex, non-addictive drugs, gorgeous clothes, and sumptuous places to party. No poverty, no unemployment, almost no crime. Does this paradise have a price? Of course.
Mallites must follow the Code, strict in many ways, most notably the ban on close and long-lasting relationships. Why? Because the Mall Fathers believed intimate, committed connections ultimately cause pain, and this is a world where suffering has been legislated into non-existence. Most are happy with the status quo except the Junkers, a shadowy group fighting against Mall Management and striving to find a portal to Outside in this supposedly closed world.
Nona, a mental health practitioner, secretly bored and unhappy with her lack of choices goes so far to defy the Code by befriending and helping Sara, a woman from our world who accidentally enters Mall. At first, Sara, desperate to find her way home, seeks the help of the Junker leader, Paul. Does the portal to Outside exist? If so, who will end up crossing through?
Paul, who is wanted by the authorities for increasingly dangerous and frequent disturbances until he foments a rebellion? Nona who has crossed the line with her close friendship with Sara? Or Sara who finds herself strongly tempted to stay in this pleasure-drenched world?
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