Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien - Review

Synopsis via goodreads:

After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents are arrested.

Badly scarred since childhood, Gaia is a strong, resourceful loner who begins to question her society. As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she herself is arrested and imprisoned.

Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where one girl can make all the difference, and a real hero makes her own moral code.

Now, I have to say I am not much of a dystopian fan – I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and it was ok, I tried to read Incarceron and could never get it – at all; I read and did like The Maze Runner, I can't wait for the 2nd book to come out...but, honestly – I could take them or leave them, and most of them I feel like I want to leave! (I know imagine that.) For me, for whatever reason, they are hard to grasp, I think it mostly is because of the "rules" each novel creates, sometimes they seem so complex that I just can't keep things straight.

Anyway, getting off track – Birthmarked was/is the first dystopian novel, I fell in love with literally. It starts off slow, like I assume any dystopian might – gotta build up, figure out the players and learn the rules of the new world. And honestly, at the beginning I was afraid this would be "another" dystopian that I almost tolerated...but, as the story goes along and the pieces start fitting together in what I can only call a dynamically, original puzzle; I fell in love – with the world created and the characters introduced.

Gaia is like no protagonist I have ever seen – she's a girl, a young girl – whose been raised "outside" the Enclave. The Enclave which, no one from the "outside" is allowed into, unless they are being "advanced" or are under arrest. The "outsiders" only see glimpses inside the Enclave, when they have the funds to buy passes to the Tvaltar. Those who live "outside" believe that the world inside the Enclave is perfect, they seem have everything. The Enclave is also the one's provide the water that everyone "outside" needs, as well as other essentials, and of course Tvaltar passes (Tvaltar which I can only equate to what our movie theater's might be).

It's Gaia's job as her mother's assistant to "advance" babies into the Enclave, and Gaia's happy to do it, after all – these are the babies that get to have it all, to live inside the Enclave has always been a dream that Gaia herself has had on more than one occasion...but because of an accident Gaia had when she was merely 10 months old, life for her inside the Enclave would never happen. She's had a rough life, because of her accident, with a bad scar on one entire side of her face.

As such, Gaia, unlike her two brothers, has always grown up "outside" the Enclave, with her parents. She's struggled with her parents, but for the most part she has always known they loved her, and she has always loved and admired them. Her mother a midwife has taught Gaia all she knows, practically ever since Gaia can remember.

One night, while she is away birthing a baby, her first alone since her mother was already away with another birthday, Gaia's mother, as well as her father are taken into the Enclave – arrested. But no one seems to know why, including Gaia, and once that happens Gaia's life turns upside down.

She begins to question everything that she has always been taught, the life she lives and even the Enclave itself...why would they take her mother as well as her father, they have always done everything the Enclave has told them to do, haven't they? Gaia is determined to find out what's going on...and along the way there's more danger than she can even dream of. Can Gaia find out what's "really" going on? Can she save herself as well as her family?

Though there are other characters sprinkled though out Birthmarked, Gaia, is the main character, the story is told via her POV, and most of the other characters are almost what I would call secondary. Gaia, carries the show, and though you might think that's a bad thing, it's not! Gaia is resourceful, brave and valiant. She's got a head on her shoulders and she does not back down from what she feels and KNOWS is right. She is brilliant, it was so nice to see a girl, not have to "grow" into herself, right from the beginning Gaia knows who and what she is, she backs down from no one and though she doubts herself on the inside, she never shows anything but fearlessness on the outside.

Another character you get to know pretty well is Leon, though I can't say much about him – I don't want to ruin anything...I will say, he's the kind of guy you just LOVE to HATE! He's a strong, unique kind of man – whom has lived inside the confines of the Enclave his entire life...though he finds it hard to believe anything Gaia tells him might be real, he is one of the only people whom is tender with her, almost loving.

OK, enough about the plot, if I keep typing I am going to mess up and mention something I should not. so...I will leave you with:

Bottom Line – Birthmarked is like no other book I have ever read! It's special, in a way I find hard to even describe – it gave me goosebumps, as well as nightmares – it sparked a debate and fire within me, it asked questions that I am not even sure I could answer. Caragh M. O'Brien is a gifted and talented author, it's not everyday you come across a novel that makes you think as much as this one , it's not everyday that your introduced to a "world" so unlike your own, yet similar in an eerie, all knowing kind of way. I give Birthmarked a 5 mushrooms and PRAY that there's a sequel to this book coming out – and SOON, from what I read Caragh is working on one, and I can't be more thrilled!


Birthmarked
By: Caragh M. O'Brien
320 Pages
Published: March 30, 2010
Publisher: Roaring Book Press