Beck Garrison lives on a seastead - an archipelago of constructed platforms and old cruise ships, assembled by libertarian separatists a generation ago. She's grown up comfortable and sheltered, but starts doing odd jobs for pocket money.
To her surprise, she finds that she's the only detective that a debt slave can afford to hire to track down the woman's missing sister. When she tackles this investigation, she learns things about life on the other side of the waterline - not to mention about herself and her father - that she did not expect. And she finds out that some people will stop at nothing to protect their secrets . . .
Review
"Kritzer shows off her worldbuilding chops in this impressive mystery set in a near future world in which a group of 'libertarian separatists' have built an archipelago of man-made islands in the Pacific Ocean near the California coast. ... Kritzer makes this world plausible through the eyes of her endearing protagonist, 16-year-old Beck Garrison, who earns money tracking down hard-to-find goods for clients across the islands. Her latest job-a request for size eight sandals-leads her to Debbie Miller, an indentured laborer on the island of Amsterdam, who agrees to hand over the footgear only if Beck locates Debbie's missing sister, Lynn, who hasn't been heard from for weeks. Beck's resourcefulness and audacity garner a clue to Lynn's whereabouts-but chasing this trail also uncovers a sinister plot, places Beck's life in danger, and reveals secrets about her life and the world that Beck's powerful father, Paul, has been keeping from her. The political critique is sharp and the mystery is gripping. Admirers of Chris McKinney's Water City trilogy will be riveted." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Kritzer's got a sharp knife and she slips it in so smoothly that you barely notice that you're bleeding. The best sf uses the future to make a point about the present, and Kritzer's got today's enshittified, profit-worshipping, sociopathic present's number." - Cory Doctorow, author of the Little Brother series and The Lost Cause
"Everything Naomi Kritzer writes is amazing. Smash that pre-order button." - Elizabeth Bear, author of Ancestral Night
"I loved Liberty's Daughter. This book offers a different kind of dystopia and a different kind of rebellion against it: a libertarian seastead that has managed to survive forty years while walking smack into all the expected bears, and a kid fighting those bears with all the strength of freedom and agency that the place has accidentally given her ... disturbing, nuanced, and wind-tossed future." - Ruthanna Emrys, author of A Half-Built Garden
"Liberty's Daughter is a fast-paced, forthright, funny voyage through libertarian seasteads and teenage heroism. Naomi Kritzer always brings both heart and brains to her tales, and Liberty's Daughter is no exception." - Marissa Lingen, Novel Gazing Redux
"I have been waiting most of a literal decade for this." - John Chu, author of Beyond the El
"I love Kritzer's work, and I always will." - Kelly Barnhill, Newbery Medalist