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O'Brien, Caragh M.
6 Reviews
(3)
YA
Vault of Dreamers series.
To find her missing family, Rosie Sinclair heads into a nuclear contamination zone. Rosie here concludes her fight against the evil Dean Berg, who mines dreams and sells them to rejuvenate damaged brains. The dystopian series (The Vault of Dreamers; The Rule of Mirrors) comes to an acceptable close that raises some interesting questions about singular versus collective consciousness.
Reviewer: Jessica Bushore
(4)
YA
Expelled from Forge, the nefarious reality-TV show disguised as an arts boarding school, Rosie (The Vault of Dreamers) discovers that among the dark experiments carried out, her split consciousness was partially transferred into comatose girl Thea. Told in alternating voices, there's a lot to unpack in this compelling psychological dystopia as Rosie tries to reconcile her two selves. Much resolution is left for the final installment.
Reviewer: David Elzey
(4)
YA
Aspiring filmmaker Rosie is ecstatic to be accepted at the Forge School, a boarding school for the arts where a reality-TV show is filmed. But when she skips her required nightly sleeping pill, Rosie discovers the school and show are a cover for a nefarious operation. Despite such a solid premise, this series-starter frustratingly reserves many answers for future books.
Reviewer: David Elzey
(3)
YA
Gaia (Birthmarked; Prized), now leader of mostly female Sylum, hopes to establish a new settlement just outside the walls of the Enclave. New Sylum and the Enclave quickly come to violence over sharing resources: water and fertile women with the anti-hemophiliac gene--including Gaia herself. The increasingly precarious environmental and gender concerns of the chilling dystopian world sustain high tension throughout this trilogy-ender.
Reviewer: Katie Bircher
(3)
YA
Apprentice midwife Gaia (Birthmarked) escaped the totalitarian Enclave with her baby sister Maya. Now living in female-ruled Sylum, Gaia tries to adapt to unyielding gender roles while weighing two potential romances and researching the infertility of Sylum men. The fresh dystopian premise of the first volume takes on a new, equally compelling aspect here, with environmental concerns at the forefront.
Reviewer: Katie Bircher
(3)
YA
As apprentice to her midwife mother, Gaia is expected to "advance" a quota of babies for adoption into the Enclave. When her parents are taken for questioning about the adoptions, Gaia and a rebel soldier challenge the Enclave's authority. With high tension and higher stakes, this dystopian thriller projects a bleak future, but one in which individual choices do have great power.
Reviewer: Katie Bircher
6 reviews
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