The Forsaken (review)

When Alenna takes a mandatory test designed to predict future criminal behavior, she's immediately exiled to Island Alpha with the other supposed delinquents. The island is a battlefield for two warring factions: one a terrifying cult run by the masked Monk, the other a ragtag band of teens clinging to the hope of escape. Alenna finds a place with the latter and joins an expedition to the deadly gray zone, which they believe holds the key to getting off the island. The journey there is riddled with threats not just from the Monk but from the aerial robotic "feelers" that regularly carry teens of both factions away to presumed death, or worse. Mysteries abound, from the fate of Alenna's parents to the identity of the Monk to the true purpose of the feelers and the gray zone, but the twists, while satisfying on a world-building level, are oddly passive in their conveyance: Alenna often hears the big revelations in clunky expository dialogue rather than figuring them out for herself. Readers lured in by the promise of a strong heroine may also find themselves frustrated by the amount of time Alenna and her friend Gadya spend sniping over the cute warrior who's taken a shine to Alenna. Still, the island is a compellingly brutal microcosm of a nation that's traded freedom for stability, and a surprising ending opens the world up for exciting future developments in the planned sequels. With iconic inspirations ranging from Minority Report to Lord of the Flies to The Hunger Games (BCCB 11/08), this will have strong appeal for dystopian fiction fans.