4.5 Stars BOOK REVIEW: BIRTHMARKED by CARAGH O'BRIEN

Title:   BIRTHMARKED
Author:  CARAGH O'BRIEN
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Australia
Pages: 361 pages Paperback
Cost: $16.99 (AUD)


RATING:  4.5 out of 5 "Advanced" Stars!!

Description by Goodreads:

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents are arrested.
          Badly scarred since childhood, Gaia is a strong, resourceful loner who begins to question her society. As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she herself is arrested and imprisoned.
          Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where one girl can make all the difference, and a real hero makes her own moral code.

REVIEW:

What a FANTASTIC read Birthmarked is!  I highly recommend grabbing a copy, sinking into your comfy sofa and be drawn into a fairly fast paced ride of ambition, love, turmoil and deception.  The speed of the story reminded me a bit of reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (my favourite series).

Gaia Stone is a great character that has her eyes opened to the split world she lives in....the only life she has known outside "the wall" and "inside the wall" that people on the outside are curious and at times jealous of.  To this I say....."The grass isn't always greener"!

Gaia is scarred on her face - and as a result she was purposely overlooked by those controlling the other side of the wall - she just didnt fit into their idyllic physical and genetic image.  So she has been left with her family to live a life of struggle. She continues in her mothers' footsteps as that of a "midwife".  To deliver the babies outside the wall - and "advance" the first 3 born to the insiders.

One night her parents are taken - arrested by authorities on the inside and taken inside the wall. From here Gaia is thrown into a tornado of decisions, emotions and personal growth in a very short time. She becomes strong and determined - though at times  she clearly questions her physical ability to cope. 

Whilst "inside" searching to rescue her parents, Gaia teams up with Leon and they forge a unique bond of trust and love with each other.  the likes of which are sure to be tested time and again in the sequel "Prized".

Birthmarked has some fantastic POW's - one of which had me crying out "What the???" !

We are left with a great ending that totally succeeds in leaving the reader wanting more - and wanting it NOW!

ENJOY!

MARISSA