** This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.**
Title: Reintegration (Reintegration, #1)
Author: Ashley Bogner
Published By: CreateSpace (2017)
Synopsis:
A perfect citizen. A captured rebel. One decision could destroy them both…
As a Regulator, seventeen-year-old Katherine Holliday’s duty is to protect the people of the Federation from a group of violent rebels who have exiled themselves to the mysterious wilderness. When one of these rebels is captured within the Federation, the government leaders propose an alternative to execution, a procedure they call Reintegration. The procedure involves erasing the rebel’s memory and attempting to make him a member of society. The rebel, a young man named Matthew, is not the violent criminal Katherine expects, and she can’t help but befriend him. A few weeks after Matthew’s Reintegration, Katherine realizes the procedure failed and she is now presented with a choice no one else can help her make. Can she warn her superiors that Reintegration failed, which could mean death for Matthew? Or will she defy everything she knows to help him escape—and risk her own execution? (Taken from Goodreads.)
Review:
I really liked this book. If nothing else, it’s going on my wish list for books to own! I found this dystopian world unique, though lacking detail (for example, if kids grow up separate from their parents, where do they grow up at? On their own?), but compelling nonetheless. Katherine was a decent lead for the book. Her heart changes felt a little rushed, but not completely unrealistic. Her love for Matthew was unique, beautiful, and adorable, yet mature, too. Matthew was well rounded and full of depth. I thought the author mastered his character and the delivery of the concept through him—the concept of even loss of one’s memory but somehow still knowing morality.
I felt that it got a little cheesy with the gospel presentation and the Intolerants being Christians and all, but I’ve read worse, so I’m not complaining. Besides, I actually really liked how the author tied in Christians as a whole and the “underground”. It made for a really eerie feel, which I like, because sometimes the those books are the ones that make us think the most.
Sometimes the story felt stereotypical—with a main female lead solely dedicated to her society but suddenly turns when she sees the truth; the romantic, mysterious love interest; the shallow best friend; the evil political leader who starts out good but slowly is revealed is evil—but for the most part it felt original.
Negative Content/Notes:
Overall: I thought it was just a good book with some good themes and I’m looking forward to reading more in this series.
Rating: 4.0
Recommended to: Ages 12+