About this book:
Who do you trust when your world unravels and everything you believed is a lie? For the past fifteen years, The Office of Civilian Safety and Defense has guarded the public against the rampant threat of terrorism. Teenagers Tommy and Careen have never known life without the government-approved Civilian Restrictions. For them, there’s no social media. No one is allowed to gather in public places or attend concerts or sporting events. Only a small, select group of adults have driving privileges. It’s a small price to pay for safety. Now a new, more deadly, terrorist threat looms: airborne chemical weapons that can be activated without warning. The OCSD is ready with an antidote to counteract the effects of the toxins. Three drops a day is all it takes. It’s a small price to pay for health. Tommy and Careen obediently take the antidote; neither considers stopping when strange things begin to happen. The day the disaster sirens signal the dreaded attack, Tommy shares his last dose with Careen, even though doing so might hasten his death. It’s a small price to pay for a friend. Follow Tommy and Careen as they uncover a web of lies and deceit reaching to the highest levels of the United States government and join an underground resistance group that’s determined to expose the truth.
*Review Contributed by Michelle Lynn, Staff Reviewer*
Great Storytelling!
This is definitely my kind of book. It has an originality about it that is hard to create in the dystopian genre. I love that. As soon as I started it, I was sucked into this crazy world, just praying I wouldn’t be interrupted. Alas, life happens, but every time something came up I couldn’t wait to get back to reading. From the outside in, this is a great looking book. Beautiful cover, clean interior formatting, extremely good editing. I was definitely impressed.
Terrorism is a constant cause of sleepless nights for the people, their fear leaving them open to the enormous amount of control the government is gathering. Biological weapons. That’s the boogeyman of the day. In order to prevent these threats, daily living has been restricting. Congregating at sporting events or concerts is prohibited along with driving. Food is delivered. And now there is an antidote that must be taken every day to lessen the toll the bio weapons can take on the population.
Tommy and Careen are just teenagers. Each has their own sad story and each is on their own. When Tommy’s antidote isn’t delivered on schedule, they think they will die. That’s what they’ve been led to believe. When death doesn’t come, they start to uncover the truth of a conspiracy that involves them in ways they’d never imagine.
The premise of this story is fantastic. A government agency tricking the entire population into taking drugs to keep them under their control. And it’s written in a unique way, with chapters representing chunks of time.
The story feels slow at times, probably due to the fact that it continuously switches to follow different people. Most of the story-lines I found interesting, but there is one in particular that slowed things down considerably. Towards the end, the pace picks up quite a bit as more action enters into the story.
The strongest part of the story is by far the characters. Tommy and Careen are young, but brave. They haven’t known each other for long, but they watch out for each other and I respect that. It’s a lot of fun to see them evolve from the lonely teens who are barely getting by in life, to the strong and courageous kids who just want answers. Those answers are what will decide their next move. How far into the resistance they will entrench themselves will depend on what they find when they start forcing the right questions.
An exciting beginning to a unique story that only leaves me wanting to know what happens next.
*Find more info on this book HERE!*
