Title: Aberrant
By Ruth Silver
Expected Publication Date: April 17, 2013
Cover Designed by Lazy Day Publishing
Blurb:
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.
Excerpt:
Joshua came into my room, ignoring all rules as he helped push the dresser further from the wall, knocking it to the floor allowing me more than enough room to grab the journal and go. I tossed it inside the pack and Joshua put the map inside before we stepped out of my bedroom. I glanced down the hall, not sure what I expected to see. To the right the dormitory had been hit, and a roar of smoke and fire filled the confined space. Jacqueline was gone. Hand-in-hand we ran in the opposite direction toward the staircase.
My eyes burned. Coughing, I refused to let go of his hand as we stepped outside. Drones weren't the only things attacking Haven. Tanks rolled into town. A few soldiers jumped off, taking over the perimeter, guns drawn. I paused, gripping Joshua's hand as we were shrouded in smoke.
Just a few feet away, a soldier lifted his weapon and unleashed fury on a group of innocent people. I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from crying out when a child no older than three hit the cement. His eyes remained open as blood seeped from his head. He didn't move. Didn't blink. It took only a moment to realize he'd died instantly. All I could do was stand there in shock.
"We have to move," I heard Joshua's voice, but it didn't register. The smoke swirled around us and gunfire erupted in every direction. He grabbed my arm. "Olivia, I need you to focus." I nodded once, trying my best to clear the cobwebs from my mind. I couldn't, though. I wanted to run out to the child and protect him, but it was too late. I was too late. They were here because of me, innocent blood on my hands. I felt the heat radiating from the dormitory and my eyes flashed back. "I need you here with me, Olive."
"I am," I insisted, knowing if I didn't focus we'd both be dead. I spotted more soldiers - their standard issue uniform and the Cabal crest on their jacket sleeve told me all I needed to know. The government had come looking for us. "Which way?" I couldn't see the exit. With the smoke enveloping us and the fear coursing through my veins, I forgot the direction we'd come from.
My Review:
I received a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Olivia lives in a world where the government provides all of your needs for you. They give you your home; the food you put on your table; the clothes you put on your back. They even tell you who you are going to marry and spend the rest of your life with and when and how many children you are going to have. Yes, no one has to worry about where they're going to live, work or if they will have enough to eat or where it is coming from. This would be a great life since we all know how to build houses (no one would be homeless), we all know how to grow food (no one would go hungry) etc.... but to have your life controlled by the government or anyone would not be right. In Olivia's world when you reach the age of eighteen you are matched up with a mate and you are married that day. You aren't given a choice as to who you want to spend the rest of your life with. Well that is not exactly true you do have a choice, you can refuse the match the government picks for you that is if you want to be banished from your life and thrown outside the walls to live with the thieves, murderers and rapists.
Also in Olivia's world no one can have children except in a lab. Each year the government holds a lottery and if you are chosen than you go to the labs and impregnated. If your name comes up again then the government takes your baby from you and given to a family outside the walls. You are only allowed to have or keep one child.
On Olivia's eighteenth birthday she dresses in the white dress that she has been provided with and heads out to the marriage ceremony. She is very scared and nervous about whom she will be matched with. She hopes with all her being that she will be matched up with her best friend, Joshua Warren. Olivia and Joshua have been best friends since the first day they laid eyes on one another the day they started school at the age of five. Olivia gets her wish she is matched up with Joshua. After they are married, they head to their new home provided by the government. They are not there long when the police come and arrest Olivia. She has no clue as to why they are arresting her and putting in a cell with no lights. Joshua helps her to escape and they have to go outside the walls to live where the rapist, murderers and thieves all live.
In Aberrant you are hit up one side and down the other with so many twist and turns. Throughout the whole book you are trying to figure out what is going on. You are always asking yourself how two people can be treated the way they are in every place they end up. Why is it everyone thinks now that the world is so missed up they can be the boss? But you know what if the world ever did end up like this then that is how it would be; everyone wanting or thinking they are the boss. I can actually see Olivia and Joshua mature little by little as they have to deal with each person they run into and all the things that they have to endure.
Aberrant kind of leaves you with this great big cliffhanger with a lot of unanswered questions. Which is a good thing though don't get me wrong. The ending leaves you with the want or need to read the next book. It does answer a lot of questions about how the world ended up like it was. But answering some question and not answering others is what makes a great writer. One who can keep you hanging on with the old adrenaline pumping and keeping the story in the back of your mind wanting and waiting for the next book.
About the Author:
Ruth Silver attended Northern Illinois University and graduated with a Bachelor's in Communication in the spring of 2005. 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, photography, traveling and most of all writing. She loves dystopian and fantasy young adult stories. Her debut novel published by Lazy Day Publishing, ABERRANT is scheduled for release April 2013. Ruth has been actively writing since she was a teenager. She currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois.
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