Title: Aberrant (Aberrant #1)
Author:Ruth Silver
Release Date: April 2013
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In the future dystopian society of Cabal, the government instills equality for all and offers its citizens the perfect system. There is food, shelter and jobs for everyone. The one requirement is to follow the rules without question, including the government’s match in marriage and “The Day of the Chosen”, a lottery that randomly selects families to conceive children as natural means hasn’t existed in generations. Following her eighteenth birthday, Olivia Parker accepts her requirement to marry her childhood best friend, Joshua Warren, and is eager to start her work assignment and new life when it all comes abruptly to an end as she’s arrested and thrown in prison. The only crime committed, her existence. Olivia is unlike the rest of the world born not from “The Day of the Chosen.” The truth haunts the government and puts her life in grave danger as one simple fact would destroy the perfect system.
With Joshua’s help, Olivia breaks free of prison and is forced on the run. Together they set out to find the promised rebel town in search of a new home and new life together. Their situation seems less than promising as they reach the town of Haven. New rules and customs must be adhered to in order to stay. Leaving would mean most certain death in the large expanse of the Gravelands. Time is running out as the government mounts an attack to destroy Olivia and bury her secret with her. Thrown into a world unlike their own, they must quickly adapt to survive.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Aberrant starts off almost innocently enough as tales like this will do. The government in an almost Stepford like city controls every facet of its citizens lives. What you wear, what you eat, where you live, what your job will be, and even who you will marry.
That last condition is where our main characters Olivia and Joshua are wed to each other, and serves as the start of a chain of events that have them on the run from the Government. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire as the rebel town of Haven may be anything but a haven.
I enjoyed the characters of Olivia and Joshua, they were both vulnerable yet strong in their own ways and as much as I hate to say it, the government got it right on matching these two up together as each complements the other quite well.
The plot certainly will keep you on your toes as the rug you start getting settled onto gets yanked out from under the characters and you more than once and will have you wondering what’s really going on long after you’ve finished the book.
The ending though, I’m not sure I’m a fan of. Not that it wasn’t good, just something was off. I was with it all along to the very end and then we’re left pondering “what in the world just happened?” Fortunately, book two in the series is already available and I don’t have to be kept wondering for long!
Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of Aberrant. The Young Adult Dystopian Adventure, Aberrant is the first in a trilogy, released April 17th, 2013. Silver first began writing poetry as a teenager and reading heaps of fan fiction in her free time. She attended Northern Illinois University in 2001 and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Communication. While in college she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her favorite class was Creative Writing senior year where she often handed in assignments longer than the professor required because she loved to write and always wanted to finish her stories. Her love of writing, led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading YA novels and sharing her favorite books with other readers. She also enjoys photography, traveling and of most of all writing.
