" The Cleansing didn't end violence.  The Cleansing didn't bring peace.  When free to find their own way, women are just as destructive."

A young adult dystopian novel with a different twist.  Years ago, a disease wiped out the entire male population, and a lot of the women.  Now only women survive and reproduce through genetic engineering.  They live in Sectors, abandoned hospitals, schools and other large buildings.  The women follow a strict set of rules including not touching that were designed to bring peace, end war and stop the spread of the disease, which men were blamed for; even though the women fight and believe themselves to be in a war with the women who choose to live outside, the Earthers.  The enforcers of the rules for each Sector is the Matriarch.  Mary lives in Section 1 with a very strict Matriarch. She has never even seen a boy, not even in her biology textbooks, they've been cut out.  When Section 7 is bombed, a new person comes to sector one.  Taylor has hidden his identity his whole life, but when he meets Mary, he feels...different.

This story is told from the alternating points of view of Mary and Taylor.  This makes for a quick-paced read.  The plot, for a YA dystopian story was unique.  The world and how it works was explained well, I usually have a lot of questions about these questionable worlds, but the disease, reproduction and the hierarchy of the society was explained fairly well. My favorite character was actually Taylor,  he grew up hiding who he was his entire life and at seventeen that will start to become more and more difficult.  At Section 1, coming out as a boy is extremely dangerous, so it was very interesting to see Taylor's decision making process and this time and how he finds his role in the matriarchal society.  The Earthers were another interesting part, living off the Earth and keeping their secrets buried underground.  The plot twist with the Matriarch was great!  I do wish that the immunity with the disease was explained at the end, but that's it. 

This book was received for free return for an honest review. 

"They're Alts.  Enemies from birth.  And now one's dead, which means the survivor has completed his assignment.  He takes off down the road, leaving behind his childhood, a past life so easily shed as a prisoner's jumpsuit."

In this YA dystopian thriller, the world has has fallen into war, but a small section of the northwest US, Kersh, has managed to block itself off from the warring Surround.  However, since Kersh is always looming under the threat of war, The Board decides to make sure their citizens are the strongest and best fighters available.  Although, they way that they do this seems just plain ridiculous.  When two sets of parents are ready to have children, all four sets of DNA are combined and both mothers are implanted with identical eggs, twins or Alts, born to separate families.  When the children are anywhere between 10 and 20 they are 'activated,' meaning that one Alt must kill the other or they both die.  This is supposed to leave Kersh with the strongest fighters.  Even though once you have killed your Alt there is nothing stopping you from becoming fat and lazy and unskilled.  There are also hired assassins, strikers, that can kill your Alt for you, and, not to mention all of the other ways in the world a person could die are still out there, too.  It is not covered in the book what happens if your Alt dies before you are activated, which seems to happen a lot when one Alt is trying to kill the other.

Anyway, 15 year old West is quite traumatized by all the death around her.  Her siblings were all killed by their activated by their Alts, and now her father has just passed shortly after the death of her mother.  Then her best friend, Chord, becomes activated and West makes sure he is the one to kill his Alt.  After witnessing this, West still feels unprepared for when her own day of activation will come.  Taking the advice of her weapons teacher at school, West decides to become a striker.  A hired assassin, outside the law, who is paid to kill other people's Alts. 

While the plot sounded really interesting to me, the world set-up and the rules just did not work for me.  The rule that the world set up and for the reasons the rules were set up were clearly not working.  Kersh wanted the strongest people for it's army, however, it may just get the richest, the sneakiest or the luckiest.  It also did not seem like Kersh was ever actively in a war.   It seemed like there would have been much simpler ways to go about training good soldiers, but that's me.  West's character was slightly annoying, she wanted to be the Alt that did everything right; but she stalled out and seem to make a lot of mistakes.  West and Chord's relationship was a mess.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a 15 year old girl push away a guy so many times, even though she thought she was protecting him.  Here is what I hope will be happening in the next book, since there is potential here:  The world of Kersh is obviously flawed, hopefully West and Chord will begin to see that and push back against authority.  West obviously has a rule breaking streak in her and is a good fighter, she might be able to go up against The Board.  Let's see what Divided will bring.

Divided, the second book in the Dualed series picks up shortly after Dualed left off.  West has given up her past as a striker and is now helping Baer in a weapons class...or so she thinks.  The Board has other plans for her.  The Board wants her to strike out three more Alts, the Alts of their children; in return West is promised a priceless reward for any children she may have.  She also gets to use a fancy Board weapon that will promise a painless death. Troubles arise for West when she learns that the Alt's aren't exactly what the Board told her. 

Divided is a lot better than Dualed!  First of all, the city of Kersh, it's beginning and some of it's rules are finally explained.  West learns the truth behind the Kersh's founders which gives us insight into why the city runs the way it does.  The origins of The Board are explained, too, which helps to explain why these seemingly corrupt Board members get to control everything.  Finally, the origins of the war and the creation of Alts are explained.  This helps to understand the world much better  (I was wondering why no one had figured out sex yet). 

With West's striker offer and her decisions on how to carry it out, there is suspense and action built in throughout the storyline.  In Dualed, there is a lot of waiting around.  Lastly, it seems that West, Chord and Auden may have stumbled upon information and a way to begin changing their flawed society.  Now, I am much more interested in seeing where this series is going. 

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.

                                                                      Elsie Chapman Website

This is a young-adult dystopian novel set in a future world where a failed revolution has caused the government to revert back to a highly controlled city state model that separates people into six zones based on their skills and traits. When children turn sixteen, they are sent to the headquarters where a computer analyzes them and chooses the most appropriate section for them to be trained in.  People with physical strength are in Stalwart, those with mental acuity are placed in Astute, strong leadership skills are in Collusive, the beautiful are in Radiant, the dreamers in Quixotic and the helpers in Altruistic. After their section is chosen, you are banded, color coded and sent off to training. Kalenna Slater has just turned sixteen.  She is banded and placed in Altruistic, away from her mother and sister in Quixotic.  She can only take one item and her memories with her. 

"You were placed where you fit in best.  Your benefit to society was determined by your skill and your skill defined your life."


I enjoyed this book as a light, fun read; although, I could easily see where it was going at points and was fairly predictable.  I was really interested in why society collapsed, how did the revolution fail?  I was also very interested in the bands themselves.  People are given 100 points on their bands and if you reach 0 points, you are injected with poison and die.  The actions for point reduction as well as the number of points reduced seems arbitrary.  Who is controlling it?  The main character, Kal, grew on me throughout the story.  At first she was a very scared and stereotypical 16 year old girl.  She does find inner and outer strength throughout the story.  The plot that involves Kalenna's father, who disappeared when she was 6, is the most interesting.  This plot point did take a while to get to, but being the first in the series there was a lot of building to do.  Also, Kalenna's roommate, Justine, at headquarters is an interesting character that could further the plot.  I hope Justine makes a reappearance in the second installation as well as Kalenna's father. 

There are many parallels between this book and other well known YA dystopian novels out there.  You may love Banded along with them, or not.