Birthmarked

Birthmarked
by Caragh O'Brien

In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the wall and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife, Gaia Stone, who live outside. Gaia has always believed it is her duty, with her mother, to hand over a small quota of babies to the Enclave. But when Gaia’s mother and father are arrested by the very people they so dutifully serve, Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught to believe. Gaia’s choice is now simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying. (description from Amazon.com)

I really enjoyed this dystopia. I thought that O'Brien did a really great job slowly revealing where and when this took place. (I really enjoyed having the included "map" of the area to reference, too...) I thought it was an interesting conundrum to address...what would happen if an insular society kept breeding only within its own walls...

I really enjoyed how sheltered Gaia was initially and how she slowly begins to piece together the moral horrors of her "perfect" enclave society. It made her seem a much stronger character that she was just innocent of the knowledge originally and then as she came to learn things, she faced them head on, refusing to back down from what she knew was right.

I really felt like all the secrets connected to her nuclear family really brought home all of the dysfunctions of this society, too. Gaia was not above dealing with any of the issues, because each affected her directly in some way.

Well done. I'm looking forward to reading Prized soon!