Jess Rothenberg’s The Kingdom is a magical read for Westworld fans

Jess Rothenberg’s YA novel The Kingdom tackles thought provoking themes in a Disney-like theme park that creates half-human, half-android princess to push its happily ever after.

What if Westworld was a little more fantasy oriented and kid-friendly? If Disney princesses weren’t girls in costumes, but animatronic hybrids programmed to make every visitor’s dream come true? Find out in Jess Rothenberg’s The Kingdom, a novel that mixes ideas of fantasy and technology to tell a story about the very things that make us human.

Ana is a Fantasist, one of seven bioengineered humans in a theme park known as The Kingdom. Basically a robotic ideal of a Disney princess, she – along with six of her “sisters” – great guests, perform shows, hold meet and greets, and basically do whatever’s necessary to make sure that the park’s visitors experience their own happily ever after — at least while they’re there.

Of course, The Kingdom also holds darker secrets, as the Fantasists begin malfunctioning in various ways, and even disappearing. The story begins with Ana on trial for murder. She’s accused of brutally murdering a park employee named Owen, with whom she may or may not have begun something like a romantic relationship.

The central question of the novel is – how responsible is Ana for Owen’s death? Can she truly feel emotions like love and rage? Is she capable of truly caring for someone, romantically speaking or otherwise? And what does it mean to feel love?

These aren’t new questions, but The Kingdom nevertheless tackles them with a perspective that feels fresh. Perhaps it’s the Disneyland-esque feel that helps make everything seem more familiar to us as readers. After all, what other place is so dedicated to crafting a happily ever after, no matter how true it may be?

The world-building behind the titular park is the most appealing aspect of the The Kingdom, as the story slowly introduces us to the other Fantasists, the various areas of the park, and the history behind its creation. There are also a fair amount of magical or otherwise impressive creatures as well, since the park also specializes in creating hybrid animals – using technology that allows them to recreate extinct creatures – which gives everything a sense of wonder and magic. (The Kingdom apparently has everything from dinosaurs to winged horses.)

As the story progresses we learn more about the history of the other fantasists, several of which have died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances since the park’s creation. (To be honest, I’d have loved to hear more about Alice, Eve and Kaia’s time in the early days of the park, as their operating systems and stories seem quite different from some of the later models.)

As with many tales involving artificial intelligence, we slowly watch Ana become more aware of her own consciousness and explore her own autonomy as the story continues.  The depiction of both Ana’s tentative feelings for Owen, as well as her confusion over having them in the first place, is compelling.

It should be noted, however, that while the potential romance between Ana and Owen is sweet, it doesn’t take over the story either. It’s simply a part of Ana’s growing consciousness and increasingly human experience that adds layers to the question of whether or not she’s becoming something more than a park robot.

There’s also the question of whether Ana killed her sort-of boyfriend, and an intriguing mystery around what happened during his last days in the park. Rothenberg sets the story around the murder trial and tells it using a combination of flashbacks, court testimony, and interviews, and it’s riveting. It’s a very creative narrative decision, which ultimately makes the book hard to put down.

The story’s main question of course, is one of humanity – and how we can determine what makes someone human. How much can Ana really care for Owen or for her Fantasist sisters? How responsible is she for her own choices? And how many of her decisions are actually her own, or the simple result of her programming?

Though The Kingdom is set in a fantasy park populated by beautiful creatures of every variety, it also holds dark secrets. The fact that the people running the park are cruel and selfish probably won’t surprise anyone, but the breadth of their general awfulness is impressive. Ana and her fellow Fantasists face regular sexual harassment and sexual assault, and this story includes everything from child endangerment to animal abuse to suicide. It’s a difficult story in places, but somehow that darkness makes everything feel more real. (Of course the people that built and run a theme park full of almost-humans would be terrible monsters. Why did we expect anything different?)

In the end, The Kingdom is a thought-provoking story that tackles some well-worn ground in a fresh and interesting way. It’s a quick, exciting read and one you probably won’t be able to put down once you start.

The Kingdom hits shelves everywhere this Tuesday, May 28.