Captive

October 1, 2014
This second installment in the Blackcoat Rebellion series dives further into the book's dystopia, rounding out the imaginative future America outlined in Pawn (2013). Kitty Doe, born, she believes, an Extra into a nation that rigidly ranks its citizens into lifelong roles, has taken the place of Lila, the daughter of the autocratic prime minister of the United States, surgically Masked to look like her. Kitty runs afoul of the powers that be in her new palatial home and finds herself shipped to Elsewhere, the deadly, inescapable detention area for criminals and other undesirables. In constant danger, she sleeps in an overcrowded dormitory, eats terrible food and works in a highly unpleasant job that furthers the book's dystopian theme. Now the Blackcoats intend to launch a major attack, and they want her to use her unique position to steal codes that will allow them to unlock advanced weaponry. Doing so, however, will put Kitty in extreme danger and possibly get many others killed as well. With Kitty out of the palace, Carter's dystopia is free to focus on the dreary and precarious lives of its victims. Character development joins worldbuilding in improvement as well, especially among the Elsewhere inmates who make difficult and deadly choices to survive, which often lead to extreme violence.With this second installment, Carter has hit her stride. (Dystopian romance. 14-18)

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January 1, 2015

Gr 10 Up-Kitty, whose low-caste status prevented her from bettering herself socially or financially, was given a way out of her life of prostitution when she agreed to be surgically transformed into the deceased niece of evil Prime Minister Daxston Hart. But with exciting new opportunities came grave dangers. In this next installment, Kitty is further entrenched in the lies that dictate her new life and she winds up accused of treason. The scenes at Elsewhere, an inescapable prison, are intense and unflinching. The plot twists and turns, with red herrings and a dynamic pace that will keep readers guessing. With even more political manuvering, suspense, and romance, fans of the first book will not be disappointed.

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 Book two of Carter's political thriller Blackcoat Rebellion trilogy picks up two months after Pawn (2013) ends. Kitty is still impersonating the prime minister's niece, Lila, and has assumed her role in the Blackcoats' plot to overthrow the government. In way over her head, impulsive Kitty angers her uncle and is banished to Elsewhere, a prison colony that houses gruesome horrors that no one escapes from. Brutal violence, hairpin plot twists, political intrigue, and Kitty's growing desperation to survive keeps the tension high; readers will race through this and count the days until the final book is released.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)