Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

"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."

Written in a utterly complex and highly detailed manner, Birthmarked an amazing  contribution to the literary world.  At first I was a little wary that I would not enjoy this read and yet now, I have rated it as my favorite read of the year! It was a extremely enjoyable book.  

To be perfectly honest though, I was very tempted to put Birthmarked down at first.  For the first 40 or so pages it was quite boring.  Not the most catchy beginning chapters.  But when Gaia goes through that wall, it's like BAM! Excitement!  The characters evolve well by the end of the book.  I was so impressed with the plot, I've actually not read a plot so thought out and creative for a long time.  In the very beginning O'Brien's writing was rather bland, a bit too dry and stiff for my likings. But as I said above, about the time the plot starts to pick up so does the writing.  Absolutely amazing. 

Gaia is an stunning character, in both her actions and thoughts. I love the way that once she makes up her mind on what's the right thing to do, she will do it and no one is stopping her.  Very strong.  Not only does this novel entertain you though, it also makes you think on what is right.  The choices that Gaia faces are extraordinarily tough to gauge what is right. At first glance you seem to know  what is right and yet once you see the other side your confidence begins to waver.  

I look forward to what Caragh O'Brien brings us next.