Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Original Publication Date: December 12, 2012
Format Read: kindle
Genre: YA Dystopia, YA Post-Apocalyptic
Purchase: Amazon
Description from Goodreads:
In a world ravaged by a nuclear holocaust, Vika Cannon knows there are no guarantees: no guarantees of safety, no guarantees that your neighbor is not actually a spy for the government, and no guarantees you'll be allowed to emigrate to a new life in China.
New Amana is dying. Food and water are scarce, and people suffering from radiation-caused mutations--the Nukeheads--are the new class of homeless.
Vika has just one purpose: to produce healthy progeny using a Husband assigned by the Match Clinic. Unhealthy children are carted away to Asylums to be experimented on, just as Vika's little sister Ceres was, eight years ago. Parents incapable of producing healthy progeny are put to death in gas chambers.
When she's assigned a Husband shortly after her twentieth birthday, Vika expects him to be complacent and obedient. But Shale Underwood has a secret. He is a member of the Radicals, the terrorist group intent on overthrowing the government. And Shale has information about Ceres.
As she learns more about the Rads's plan, Vika finds herself drawn to Shale in ways she'd never imagined. When freedom calls in the way of a healthy pregnancy, will she betray her government and risk death for Shale and Ceres?
In a world ravaged by a nuclear holocaust, Vika Cannon knows there are no guarantees: no guarantees of safety, no guarantees that your neighbor is not actually a spy for the government, and no guarantees you'll be allowed to emigrate to a new life in China.
New Amana is dying. Food and water are scarce, and people suffering from radiation-caused mutations--the Nukeheads--are the new class of homeless.
Vika has just one purpose: to produce healthy progeny using a Husband assigned by the Match Clinic. Unhealthy children are carted away to Asylums to be experimented on, just as Vika's little sister Ceres was, eight years ago. Parents incapable of producing healthy progeny are put to death in gas chambers.
When she's assigned a Husband shortly after her twentieth birthday, Vika expects him to be complacent and obedient. But Shale Underwood has a secret. He is a member of the Radicals, the terrorist group intent on overthrowing the government. And Shale has information about Ceres.
As she learns more about the Rads's plan, Vika finds herself drawn to Shale in ways she'd never imagined. When freedom calls in the way of a healthy pregnancy, will she betray her government and risk death for Shale and Ceres?
The description sounds intriguing, doesn't it? That combined with that pretty cover enticed me to read this book (still not sure how the cover relates to the book).
I really liked the first half of the book. I did find some parts a little far fetched. Basically there was a really big war, a nuclear war. Lots of men went off to fight and most of them died. New Amana is made by "feminist" women rising up to take the lead. I say feminist lightly because what is a feminist?
A feminist is an advocate for social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those
of men.
And that is clearly NOT what is happening in this book. In this book men are inferior to women, partially because it was men and testosterone ways that brought about the war. The women in this book are not any kinder though.
Also in this book China has become the new super power. Clearly they somehow managed to stay out of the war and all of the nuclear pollution managed to stay away from the air over China. So, China has the cleanest air in the world. This is partially explained by saying they have new technology to help clean up the air and keep it clean.
This technology is suppose to be in use slowly cleaning up the air over New Amana which will take years. In the meantime, people are left to breathe horribly polluted air. And the population is dwindling. I should say healthy population. Because in this new world they institutionalize or murder (via gas chambers) anyone who is not genetically healthy or cannot produce a child within a given time frame.
If you are a good little citizen and manage to produce children or meet specific fitness guidelines, you have a chance of getting a boat ticket to immigrate to China to live while New Amana is cleaned up. Those left behind will continue having dwindling safe food and water and will most likely die. Oh, and if you turn in fellow citizens that break the law, you get extra special brownie points with the government. These "law breakers" tend to be immediately sentenced to death with no chance to defend themselves.
Not necessarily all believable, but interesting nonetheless. We follow Vika, one of the sheep of New Amana who blindly follows what the government expects of her. As a character she starts out pretty flat but develops okay over the course of the story. She is given a Husband, who is suppose to keep house (think 1950's role reversal), help Vika conceive a child (via boring and clinical sex), and if Vika chooses, stay home and help raise the child. Vika is assigned Shale. Now Shale is an interesting character. I really liked him. Shale is really part of the rebel underground who was given the task (he volunteered) to be Vika's Husband and try to get information from Vika's work that will help the rebels. Vika works for a government agency who sorts coded data related to the movement of people to and from the asylums and gas chambers.
Vika slowly comes to realize that the government is bad and decides she wants to help the rebels free children from the asylums, including her little sister. All while this is happening her relationship with Shale develops. And they are off on their mission. So far so good. I was really liking it at this point and was even discussing it with my family and friends. And then the story goes down hill (for me anyways).
SPOILER ALERT
Which also happens to be around the time that Shale disappears from the story. When you have such an interesting character, why oh why did the author feel the need to drop him from the story. I kept waiting for him to reappear, but he never does. I REALLY hope if the author gets around to writing the sequel that she puts SHALE back in.
Anyways, at this point in the book, things just go down hill. Vika is treated horribly by a man that felt she was to blame for him being kicked out of the rebels. I didn't really feel what happened to her was necessary for the story. Then we have wandering and wandering and finally finding a camp of asylum refugees and her sister (SORRY). And then there is waiting, and waiting and more waiting for the sympathetic government officials to show up to transport the children via a special boat to China.
END SPOILER ALERT
Overall I feel the author started out with a 4-5 star book. Definitely would have been 5 if she had thrown in chapters from Shale's POV. I would LOVE to have his POV of the whole situation. Then about halfway through you drop the most interesting character from the book. The second half was a 1.5-2.5 star book. This leaves me with having to give this book a 3 star rating. It definitely has potential, but I think it needs to be reworked. Maybe pick up a professional editor or rework the story a little.
My Rating: 
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