Cindy Gunderson

Kate and Eric are alone in the wilderness with their children. Although life isn't easy, they are figuring out how to provide for themselves and are happy. But then they find a group of children - the remnants of tier three and their lives take a turn yet again as they realise that integration goes far beyond just their family.

Our characters have come so far since the first book. They are definitely less naïve and and annoying than they were at first, but I still only really like the children (although everyone is really doing their best!). As much as I think that this kind of segregated future could be plausible, I feel like a lot of what happened in it is slightly less so. It felt like a lot happened for convenience/necessity and often things came a little too easily to the characters. While there may have been struggles leading up to events/discoveries, these were largely off page and I would have loved to have seen more of this.

I'm a little surprised that Berg didn't come knocking on their door and disrupt them. So of course they had to go to them. I did enjoy reading about their new life, although I am a nature lover so maybe I'm a bit biased! While it does provide direction, the ending is pretty vague. I'm okay with this, but I know others may be frustrated by it. I wonder if the author wanted to leave room for a potential fourth book? I would have enjoyed a slightly more satisfying end (but as I said I am okay with the more open one) to make the story feel more complete.… (más)

Set slightly after book 1, Kate believes that Eric and Tal are dead and is living with Nick, Bentley and her new (genetically perfect) twin daughters. She is plagued by nightmares and memories of her mother and her previous family due to the reversals the government performed on her. In this Tier 2 we see the characters we met in Tier 1 struggle with their new realities and see them start to struggle to disentangle what they want and believe from what they have always known to be true.

My theory at the end of the last book was correct! I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book relative to the first one. Although it started off slow (a portion I didn't enjoy all that much if I'm completely honest), it definitely got deeper into the ethics of this society, which I really enjoyed. The ending... Well, while I love what it could lead to I do have my problems with it. Everyone has far too much trust for the people in power after all that they discovered. They could just perform reversals on everyone after getting the information they want and rearrange everything the way they want again. I mean, they already did exactly that in the last book. Nick did valuable research but they found a better pairing so arranged that at the cost of everyone's memories. What's to say they won't just do it again? They could wait for Eric to keep up his end and exploit the information so easily! Why does he put so much faith in leaders he believes to be so corrupt and power hungry? I mean yeah, he tried to make the right choice, but still!

Am I going to read the next book? Yes. I'm curious to see what Kate and her family's very new life looks like. And just how long it takes for it to be torn apart again.… (más)

So. I wasn't sure what I felt like listening to. Nothing felt quite right. After a while I came across a dystopian book with DNA on the cover and I thought "well, I could do this." I don't know how much of this decision was me just getting frustrated about the search, but I'm glad I made it!

Set far in the future, humanity was largely wiped out by a disease (that's all we know about it). In order to aid population recovery and to make the best possible use of the limited available resources people are divided into three tiers, from most valuable (desirable genes - get all they need, allowed to reproduce with genetically compatible people, etc) to least valuable (undesirable genes such as many disease markers - get the scraps the higher tiers didn't use). This is possible thanks to the ruling power - a genetics company who have been researching the human genome and finding all kinds of links. I liked that the impacts of epigenetics were also touched on (people are constantly evaluated in order to maximise their health, and for tier 2 citizens the opportunity to move up into tier 1), although I feel like the impacts may have been slightly exaggeratedI also feel like there's a lot of discussion to be had about how the tier system reinforces itself if social conditioning has such a large effect. If you are raised as a certain tier, won't that tend to perpetuate itself? One of the kids and even kind of Kate gets very close to touching on this but I do hope it's something that's explore more explicitly later on!. This story follows Kate and her family in this new world, where she works as a healthcare provider for tier 2 citizens and her partner as a researcher who is trying to solve cancer - the main cause of death in the new world and the main reason that life expectancy is so much lower than t once was.

This book very much has a 2010s YA dystopia feel to it. But unlike most of these books, the characters are adults who have found their place in the world (jobs, kids, etc) rather than teens who are just entering it. That being said, the way they spoke and some of their interactions did sometimes feel very reminiscent of these kinds of books (although there were fewer of the frustrating behaviours that you start to notice in YA books when you are a little older!). I didn't like the characters very much (the classism was very strong and so was the white saviour complex (although applied to class rather than race - is there a name for this?) but I did enjoy reading about them and their world. I must say that I'm rather interested in the older days.

I did predict one of the main reveals pretty early on (I think I got it the first time it was hinted at) but I didn't mind too much. I think the story got a little off track after it was actually revealed (look, it makes sense but I don't know how I feel about the sequence of events? They basically felt like they happened because plot but I get why they happened) but it definitely picked up again towards the end. I kind of liked that the ending got vague. I have theories and I am interested to see how they hold up in the next book! If you enjoyed (or at least like the concept of) 1984 and Matched it is definitely worth giving this a shot! Just be aware that the tone is a lot more like the latter (albeit darker) as this kind of style is definitely not for everyone.… (más)