Gaia Stone lives outside the wall of the Enclave, on the shore of Unlake Michigan. The Cool Days are in the distant past. Only a small percentage of the human population survives. In Gaia's small settlement, the Enclave rules everyone with an iron fist in order to ensure the survival of the remaining people. Only the wealthy privileged live inside the wall, where they have access to luxuries like plentiful food, water, electricity, and education.As a new midwife, one of Gaia's responsibilities is to deliver the first babies born outside the wall each month to the Enclave. She has never questioned the Enclave's demand for their children, even though her two older brothers were both given up before she was born. Gaia herself was never at risk - the Enclave only accepts perfect children, and one side of Gaia's face was horribly burned in an accident when she was a baby.
But when Gaia returns home after delivering her first baby to the Enclave gate, her mother's assistant, Old Meg, stops her outside. Gaia's parents have been arrested and Meg asks Gaia to flee with her. When Gaia refuses to abandon her parents, Meg gives her a small parcel that belonged to her mother, and tells Gaia to protect it with her life before disappearing. When she opens the package, all she finds inside is a ribbon with strange symbols woven into it.
For the first time in her life, Gaia finds herself questioning the motives of the Enclave. Determined to find and free her parents, she finds herself faced with more questions than answers. Why were they arrested? What do the symbols on the ribbon mean? Why is no one from the outside allowed inside the wall? What is the Enclave hiding? And why are their children being stolen?
This dystopian sci-fi novel set more than 300 years in the future is for fans of Lois Lowry's The Giver and The Hunger Games triology. Gaia's quest to discover her parents and the connection between their arrest, the ribbon, and the stolen children lead her on a heart-pounding, action-packed adventure into the forbidden city and the heart of Enclave's deepest secrets - the discovery of which may leave Gaia holding the key to the future of humanity.
Megan
(who just finished Mockingjay, and all is can say is WOW.)
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