The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

Title: The Forsaken

Author: Lisa M. Stasse

Pages: 375

Published: July 10, 2012

Level: Young Adult

Synopsis (Goodreads): 

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.
Review: I originally picked this up at the library because I loved the cover and when I read the inside cover I was like

I needed this book. 

So today, guess what I did? 

I read the entire thing. 

That's right. 

The ENTIRE book. 

In eight hours. 

The entire time while I was reading this book, my expression literally was:

AWWWWW YEAHHHHH

Y'all needa read this.

This wonderful piece of dystopian wonderfulness. It's wonderful. 

I can't even compare it to The Hunger Games. 

This is the next big dystopian novel guys. 

Not even joking. 

So when this book gets a movie deal sometime in the future, just remember that I called it. 

GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS BOOK ASAP.

If you are worried about time issues like "Oh, it just came out, I think I'm going to wait because what if it has a big cliff hanger. I don't want to wait long for the second book to come out."

Don't wait. 

Take my word for it, there is no huge cliff hanger at the end. The author doesn't cut the book off in some big fight scene or whatever. 

The author is actually pretty nice. She's a librarian so I guess she can relate to readers' stress about cliff hangers. 

A lot of questions are answered, a lot of fighting takes place, lots of people die. 

But the ending is refreshing. 

Of course there needs to be another book, not all of the problems are resolved by any means. 

Of course I can't wait to get my hands on the next book. The author's writing skills are amazing! She captivated me in the first chapter. 

So please please PLEASE. 

Go read this book. 

Cover: 5/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Style: 5/5

Development: 6/5

Overall: 

*****