Dystopia: Book One
Stephanie Hamilton
language
(, Nov. 4, 2017)
On Selection Day, the ceremony that decides the fate of each seventeen year old, inaugurating them into society, establishing order and peace across the world, has seemingly made a mistake. Aria, Pete, and Ellie, the Undecideds of Northeast 76, anticipated two fates: banishment or a life of seclusion. But they are not given a Selection. They have been summoned by the Government to Caput Mundi: the capital of the world. And so has every seventeen year old of the same marking. They gather in the capital, where the ambiance is fit for indoctrination and where Aria is promptly sequestered from her friends. Gifted with mechanical and computational ingenuity, Pete and Ellie are given tasks that focus on tactical analysis and application. Aria, however, is given a library. She is told to use her eidetic memory to record its contents. She is told this is the most essential facet in ensuring peace. But she knows not to trust the Government. Truth will come from the unsaid and the overheard, like whispers behind a door, or announcements on a screen. When it is finally pieced together, Aria, Ellie, and Pete must decide to run or to destroy the constructs of their demise. To do so, they will have to overcome barriers to an impregnable headquarters, through the technological machinations that protect it, and eradicate potentially fatal information, despite the barcode on each of their left wrists that makes crime and revolution impossible.A lesser burden than what awaits if they succeed.