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The book is a fascinating history and a breathtaking scenery. Brian brings us to an apocalyptic world with some surprises at the end.

To all the jaded sell-out YA novels out there – learn from this book. Right now – stop what you’re doing and take notes.

Tribe of Iodine Wine: The Lord of the Flies for a Modern Audience
“And then I cried. I sobbed like a child. The stress was all too much. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I could feel my tears run onto my naked arms and down to the fabric.”

Imagine A Lord of the Flies where instead of focusing on what happens from the aeroplane crash and beyond, it gave you an exploration of the relationship between the boys when they still attended normal school together. Imagine how fantastically this would have explored the relationships between characters and how much more saddening and impactful the reality of their murdering, madness and depravity would have been.
And so, I introduce to you the Tribe of Iodine Wine. A book that does just this.

A Summary
“To Me, a wallflower watered in bitter disdain, the velocity of connections is just annoying as fuck.”
The book’s premise as explained here on Goodreads is a pretty good explanation so I won’t go into too much detail. The book centres around a group of teenagers who went to the school and got into all sorts of shit and had a lot of fun, but also difficulties due to their colourful personalities. A very large atomic bomb hits close to their neighbourhood, and only the 14-18 year olds are evacuated to a small Islam state where they must build a new life for themselves in a camp along with a group of Mormons and Hispanic kids. Something much worse happens when they realise what the truth is regarding the reality of the bomb that destroyed most of America, and it begins to slowly gnaw away that their little den of security.

The Characters: Just To Give you a Little Taste
“Stereotypes are such a strange thing. They make you invisible and center stage at the same time, like being stateless.”
The characters are a Tribe. Early in the book, they drink iodated water and commit to an oath of the Tribe of Iodine Wine. This is their ritual; their blooded hands to which they must answer in helping each other.
Mr Pacini paid painstaking attention to the details of his characters. They are not only of varying ethnic and social backgrounds, but have unique speech idiosyncrasies, ticks, strengths and weaknesses. No character is portrayed as the good or bad guy as every character whose viewpoint we have the pleasure of reading sees the others differently. The romances between characters are also much more realistic and less perfect than your usual YA, but ultimately more relatable and all the more sweet for it (And focus on commitment instead of steamy sex scenes).
Pax: A soft-spoken Jewish boy with a hidden instability. He seeks to protect everyone in his life.
Kevin: “Kevin was smaller and reserved, and he usually stared off into the distance through the dark-circled eyes set on his pale face. But he was more dangerous than Michael.”
Lupina: “Lupina was sleeper beautiful. Tall and long-legged, she could easily could have become a model if she didn’t care so much for helping others instead.”
Spencer: The Mormon group leader with a great sense of courage and morality.
Annie: A strong, aggressive, sassy and outspoken girl.
Charlotte: “Charlotte was always serious. She carried a natural beauty hidden behind glasses, nerd quotes and an Fuck-the-world disposition.”
Felicia: Such a strong woman who carries on despite the adversity she faces.
Michael: “Michael was intimidating as hell. He was a big, crazy-smart kid who scared the shit out of the white kids.”
Fetien: Maybe one of my favourites. She is an Ethiopian girl who runs extremely quickly and attempts to see beyond Kevin’s instability.
These characters commit unspeakable acts to help their friends and keep the tribe of Iodine Wine going.
Portrayal of Teenagers: What YA authors need to learn
“We’re a fucking tribe.”
Our main characters are initially introduced as seven kids of differing backgrounds, difficulties and strengths. I’m only twenty – I remember what it’s like to be in these kids’ shoes. This is the first young adult novel where I can relate so well to the characters that I get frustrated, teary-eyed or joyful at their actions and thoughts. In this novel, characters are thrown into impossibly difficult situations that no young person should face. Their strengths and weaknesses blossom in response to how they deal with these situations and change them for better or worse. Characters follow arcs that are not straight-laced; they have ups and downs and do not improve or deteriorate consistently. This is what I find so fantastic about the novel; these characters are so realistic without being boring.

The Back and Forth: How to Flip POV on its Head
“he is rying and whimpering and reminding me that we are only kids thrown into the world of fucked-up adulting.”
I absolutely love how the book’s POV is done. The first half of the book consists of alternating chapters of how Pax (A soft-spoken Jewish boy with a conflicted heart) muses on both past and present situations he and his friends have found themselves in. The POV changes suddenly halfway through to all the characters that he has been describing – this gives such a lovely little twist to character perspectives and motives and is so refreshing. The alternating between past and present also gives colour and explanation to the characters and their motives. And ladies and gentleman, we have an unreliable narrator, which is always a fantastic addition to any book.

Drop what you’re reading and drop your preconceptions of YA stereotypes because a Tribe of Iodine Wine will shock you into a whirlwind of emotions.

Despite being well beyond the age demographic for this title, I did enjoy it's raw simplicity. In its initial stages it dwelt within the delinquent pranks of a bunch of Denver teenagers who pushed the boundaries of the law in an effort to establish their Rites of Passage. In it's infancy, the plot is credible, pacy and punchy. Later it moves into a dystopian phase orchestrated by a life changing catastrophe in which the main characters are spirited away from their families to a military run camp in Central Asia.

It then becomes a fight for survival against various factions of the military, and fellow camp inmates, who by administrative design, are all aged in their teens; and yes, there is romance, death and betrayal.
Dystopian themes are not new, and in some respects "Iodine" reminds me of John Marsden's "Tomorrow, When the War Began"; but there is a freshness about this plot and a sense of hope throughout its darker moments.