Captives Review
Jill Williamson provides a dystopian premise in her YA novel Captives. The story takes place in the not too distant future of 2088 and reflects many of the same concerns facing our own world: a pandemic brought on by casual sex, increased government surveillance, technology replacing genuine relationships, and the emphasis of outer versus inner beauty.
The action takes place in the walled domain called Safe Lands, which is ironically a place where the citizens are far from being safe, due to their hedonistic lifestyles, which result in early deaths. With the inability to sustain their dwindling population, the Safe Lands government travels outside of its boundaries and kidnaps outlanders. As the new captives adapt to their new environment the story focuses on who will resist the temptations of Safe Lands and who will be overcome.
The mature topics within the story are handled well, with only a small tendency towards preachiness. The plot is divided into several viewpoints, which tends to give it a somewhat choppy flow. For those who are dystopian novel fans there are many recognizable tropes: hedonism, children martyrs, overbearing governmental control, and situational ethics.
At the end of the book there is a desire to know the rest of the story and the reader looks forward to the next installment of the Safe Lands series.
This book was provided by BookSneeze in exchange for a fair review.
Pam Webb 