Gated, by Amy Christine Parker

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Release date: August 6, 2013

She thought the evil lived outside the walls. She was wrong.

In the Community, life seems perfect. Lyla Hamilton believes she is one of the chosen. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Pioneer invited her family to join the Community and escape the evil in the world. They've thrived under his strict, charismatic leadership. Now seventeen, Lyla knows certain facts are not to be questioned:

Pioneer is her leader.
Will is her Intended.
The end of the world is near.

Pioneer has visions of the imminent destruction of humanity. He says his chosen must prepare to fight off the unchosen people, who will surely seek refuge in the Silo, the underground shelter where the Community will wait out the apocalypse.

Lyla loves her family and friends, but a chance encounter with an unchosen boy has her questioning Pioneer, the Community--everything. She needs time to figure out the truth. But with Pioneer's deadline for the end of days fast approaching, time is the one thing she doesn't have.




Drats.  Yet another book that tantalized me with a creepy cover and an intriguing premise, yet failed to deliver.  It was a struggle to finish this book, and I thought of giving up several times.  But I didn't want to start ARC August with a DNF! 

The main character, Lyla, was a whiny brat who was just so put-upon with the whole following-the-rules-of-the-community thing. 

And the whole bad-thing-that-happened-to-my-family-when-I-was-five-is-all-my-fault cliche is so annoying.  I have a five-year-old.  I can guarantee you that neither he nor his friends think that anything that happens--even those events that are the direct result of their actions--is their fault.  And how does she have so many questions when she's been brainwashed for so long?  We're told that she's a strong character, but I didn't see a lot of that.

Then Lyla sees Cody for the first time and she knows she's in love with him, even though she hasn't seen his whole face.

Um...okay?  I don't really know why he was introduced, other than to form a love triangle.

None of the characters seemed true to themselves.  Pioneer, in particular, wasn't a typical cult leader: he showed more manipulation than love of religion.

I was really disappointed in the end.  What was the motivation?  That's not the kind of END OF THE WORLD that I expected.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Viral Nation (Viral Nation #1), by Shaunta Grimes

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After a virus claimed nearly the entire global population, the world changed. The United States splintered into fifty walled cities where the surviving citizens clustered to start over. The Company, which ended the plague by bringing a life-saving vaccine back from the future, controls everything. They ration the scant food and supplies through a lottery system, mandate daily doses of virus suppressant, and even monitor future timelines to stop crimes before they can be committed.

Brilliant but autistic, sixteen-year-old Clover Donovan has always dreamed of studying at the Waverly-Stead Academy. Her brother and caretaker, West, has done everything in his power to make her dream a reality. But Clover’s refusal to part with her beloved service dog denies her entry into the school. Instead, she is drafted into the Time Mariners, a team of Company operatives who travel through time to gather news about the future.

When one of Clover’s missions reveals that West’s life is in danger, the Donovans are shattered. To change West’s fate, they’ll have to take on the mysterious Company. But as its secrets are revealed, they realize that the Company’s rule may not be as benevolent as it seems. In saving her brother, Clover will face a more powerful force than she ever imagined… and will team up with a band of fellow misfits and outsiders to incite a revolution that will change their destinies forever.




Argh!  THIS is the reason that I don't like to read series before all of the books are complete!  I WANT MORE!  Seriously.  Duets, trilogies, etc. need to come with warning labels.

I plead ignorance.  If I had known that there was a sequel, I wouldn't have requested it from NetGalley.  But honestly?  That would have been a shame.  Because I really liked this book!  

This is a great addition to the Dystopian genre: great characters; crappy living conditions for some & posh lifestyles for others; Bad Guys who control the rest of the population; puppy love; and time travel.  The best part?  The main character has Autism!  I Pink Puffy Heart LOVE unconventional protagonists.  And Clover is definitely not your typical attractive-teenager-who-invents-problems kind of girl.

 I really can't wait until the next book comes out (get writing, Shaunta Grimes!) so I can learn what happens next.





I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Children of the Dust, by Louise Lawrence

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After a nuclear war devastates the earth, a small band of people struggles for survival in a new world where children are born with strange mutations.

Everyone thought, when the alarm bell rang, that it was just another fire practice.  But the first bombs had fallen on Hamburg and Leningrad, the headmaster said, and a full-scale nuclear attack was imminent.

It's a real-life nightmare.  Sarah and her family have to stay cooped up in the tightly-sealed kitchen for days on end, dreading the inevitable radioactive fall-out and the subsequent slow, torturous death, which seems almost preferable to surviving in a grey, dead world, choked by dust.

But then, from out of the dust and the ruins and the destruction, comes new life, a new future, and a whole brave new world.




There are a few things I remember about this book:

1. It was one of my favorites when I was a freshman in high school.  I wrote an awesome book report and I'm pretty sure I got an A on it.
2. A little girl hid under the table, which was covered with a blanket.  Dust fell down the chimney and contaminated everything in the house, and the family "knew" that the little girl was going to be the only one to live.  The little girl was left with a man who lived on a farm.
3. A generation later, after the dust has settled, some people come up to the earth from an underground shelter and find this now-grown little girl, who is giving birth to another baby.  This baby is covered with fine white fur.
4. One of the group members is actually the girl's half-sister.  Their father had been escorted underground when the bombs hit and then proceeded to make a new life according to the needs of the remainder of society.

I've thought about this book off-and-on over the years, so it was my first choice when--for a book club challenge--I needed to re-read a book from high school English class.  Unfortunately, the book was first published nearly 30 years ago (man, I feel old), so it wasn't easy to find.  I lucked out and bought one of a handful of copies available online.

I am happy to say that I was right about the four bullet points above!  I'm thrilled that I remembered correctly.  What I didn't remember, however, was the hope for the future that each generation showed.  Somehow, I also didn't realize that it was Christian Fiction.  So I was more than a bit surprised at all of the religious references.  And a lot surprised that this was one of my favorite books all those years ago.

I don't think this novel would stand up to modern Dystopia, but I can't help but give it five stars.  The story has stayed with me for twenty-something years, which counts for a lot.

1984, by George Orwell

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Thought Police. Big Brother. Orwellian. These words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man's nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.

More relevant than ever before, 1984 exposes the worst crimes imaginable--the destruction of truth, freedom, and individuality.  




 I can't believe it's taken me this long to read 1984, when most people I know read this in High School. Though -- considering how depressed I feel after reading this novel -- perhaps it's best that I haven't read it until now.