Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien
November 8, 2011 by Roaring Brook Press
Hardcover, 368 Pages
Review Copy-ARC
Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime. In order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and everything in her heart that makes her whole?
**please note this review may contain unavoidable spoilers from book one**.
Review
Its been weeks since Gaia's escape from the Enclave with her newborn baby sister Maya. Wondering in the wastelands has left her scared, running low on supplies and baby Maya on the brink of death. Both girls survive after a man captures them in the forest and brings Gaia to Sylum- a peaceful society run by women and just as ferocious in rules as the Enclave. Underneath the peaceful extorior however problems lurk among them. In this ultra-woman dominated world, females are slowly coming close to extinction, each generation seeing fewer girls born. A strange disease plaques the community, one that disables them to leave the Sylum, health masks the effects in the town but once in Wastelands, slowly the sickness kills them. So needless to say Gaia is stuck there~ not only has she caught the disease but her sister has been taken away from her and placed in a new family's care, in order to be a part of Maya's life and to be a working midwife in the society (one they desperately need) she will have to submit to Sylum laws.
Trading one hell for the next, Gaia doesn't know how to force her natural desire to fight for justice and her fierce loyalty to being a physician away for all the rules. But she also wants to see her sister again and misses Leon, the boy she left behind and who is now a prisoner of the Sylum. The choice ultimately while painful is simple...conform.
Trading one hell for the next, Gaia doesn't know how to force her natural desire to fight for justice and her fierce loyalty to being a physician away for all the rules. But she also wants to see her sister again and misses Leon, the boy she left behind and who is now a prisoner of the Sylum. The choice ultimately while painful is simple...conform.
As Gaia begins her new life with a confused array of emotions, she is surprised that her scars don't isolate her anymore. Rather than a stumbling block that ostracized her, many in this place reach out to her because of them. With so little fertile women in the camp, and a civilizations desperate need to reproduce, the scars are a non-issue and the men are eager to claim her as a prize. An odd possibility of love interests unfold for Gaia.....a set of brothers Peter and Will and of course Leon who has gone bat-crap- crazy, but seriously tends to be the only man who can rival the men in the camp to change the way things are. Even with the somewhat new freedoms and exasperating love interests, Gaia's startling discoveries about the men in the society, ultimately stir up revolution.
I really loved Birthmarked, the first book in this series and mainly due to the fact that Gaia was so different from a typical YA girl. I found her character in a sense young but with a mature and edgy quality that spoke bravery and independence and not edgy like the typical gangsta-thong-ho we typically see. In Prized while Gaia still carried that spark of rebel girl, she seemed to mellow out, probably due to all the male hotties slobbering over a chance to get her alone. I think Gaia needed this though, she finally was able to set aside the scar-issue, something O'Brien made us all forget about, its what made Prized so genius, with the combination of a strong female character and the use of a completely different power structure serving to multilayer the story.
While some of the Gaia's views on child birth don't personally line up with what I believe, I did enjoy the medical and almost scientific mind she had. I wasn't thrilled about the use of concoctions made to miscarry babies either, I think the whole issue was just a gateway into the whole abortion debate and in this case making a valid case for Pro-Choice. I do have to give props though to Caragh for also shining the light on the importance of having children and the issue of women being able to chose not having children without the stigma of automatic spinster. I always knew from book one that this story encapsulated pregnancy and having children, however I felt a little distracted in Prized with the women's-lib/right to chose thing and found myself missing the gritty dystopian thread that got this story off the ground in book one.
Prized all in all delivered fast paced story telling with solid character and world development. Im excited to see where book three takes us.
Prized all in all delivered fast paced story telling with solid character and world development. Im excited to see where book three takes us.
ps- I adore that pink cover
Rating: Prized is recommended to mature teens (15-Up)
Advisory: Violence, issues on women's rights-including-abortion and birth control, mild romance, totalitarian society's and mild sexuality.
Positives: Freedom and free will, loyalty, standing up for what you believe in and opens the topics for birth control and child-birth.
4/5- YA-Dystopian
Thanks to Roaring Brook and Caragh O'Brien for Review Copy
Buy your Copy of Prized Today and have it on your doorstep November 8th 2011 and dont miss the first book in the series...Birthmarked!!!
Nice review! I'm looking forward to reading this one.
ReplyDeleteGreat honest review. I love that you always break down what bugged you and why :)
ReplyDeleteI think I might have the same issues with it but it sounds like it's still worth the read.
I like the pink cover too.
Appealing information you have provided. It gained me more knowledge and idea. Please keep up the good because i like the way you are writing. Thanks!
ReplyDelete