by Caragh M O'Brien
published by Roaring Brook press
Summary: Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime. In order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and everything in her heart that makes her whole?
My Thoughts: While this was a good book, for most of it it felt like a completely different series than book one. Other than two of the characters having the same names nothing really carried over. Even the personalities of Gaia and Leon were unrecognizable for the first 3/4 of the book. Even with that, as I said above, this was still a good read.
I found the society of Sylum interesting if not a little unbelievable at times. It may be more that I had a hard getting behind a place where there are absolutely no men with any backbones. They outnumbered the women 9 to 1 yet were completely whipped. Even being in charge the women weren't much better. They put themselves up as prizes to the men for a winning a game of soccer and agree to have at least 10 children each in hopes of evening out the genders.
There is a stated love square in this book but it read more as a triangle to me. I never felt that one of the brothers was really in it. I liked the new character additions Peter and Will, the Libbies, Norris. They kept me reading even as I was trying to figure out how this book went with the first.
The promise of trying to move this society and join it up with the Enclave was enough to get me to read the third book when it comes out (Oct 2012). I'm interested to see how many make it past the gateway sickness and if the Enclave is really as open as Gaia and Leon hope, to adding to the gene pool inside the wall.
Rating 3.5
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