Review Detail

Review copy received for blog tour

In the dystopian society of Cabal, all citizens are equal and required to accept the governent rules without question. People are matched by the government in marriages and children are born to families who win a lottery called "The Day of the Chosen". At eighteen, Olivia Parker has just been matched to her childhood best friend Joshua and is eager to start living with him. Howvere, she's arrested and thrown into jail; her crime is that she was born naturally.

With Joshua's help, Olivia escapes from prison; they flee together to another city, Haven. The government, however, is hunting Olivia down and will stop at nothing to kill her.

Aberrant was an interesting dystopian novel. There is quite a bit of world building, as we need to learn about the government and society in order to understand the plot. Cabal seems to be run by an authoritarian regime which ensures equal living conditions to everyone. Women, however, can't seem to be able to conceive naturally. Each couple can have a child if they win the lottery, but only one;if they win the littery a second time, they are forced to give the baby up. But there's at least one woman who can conceive: Olivia's mother was able to get pregnant, so it's assumed that Olivia would, too.

This partof the plot I found quite confusing. It is stated that women can't conceive naturally, so I thought they had to turn to somethign like in vitro fertilization. However, later it is explained that babies are born in labs rather than in hospitals. So maybe women can't carry out a pregnancy, either? Then how could Olivia's mother carry out hers without being noticed? I suppose it would look very strange to have a woman with a pregnant belly in a society where no other woman is. Or maybe she was able to hide it for this reason, that people do not associate a swollen belly on a woman to a pregnancy any longer? I wish the book had cleared up this point.

The plot is very fast-paced and full of surprises. The characters are not particularly described, except for Olivia and Joshua, the two main characters. Olivia is a young woman thrust into a world she knows nothing about; she is determined to do what it takes to stay alive. Joshua is a sweet, caring friend and boyfriend. In spite of being matched together by the government, they appear to be well suited to each other.

The book is short, so we are left wanting more from the series.