The Synopsis:

In an abandoned coal mine, a group of fugitives huddle four-hundred feet beneath the surface of the earth. To the world, and to the Federal Task Force who have been commissioned to hunt them down, they are known as subversives. Dangerous religious zealots who must be captured and imprisoned before their extremism can infect anyone else. Since the night of her parent’s arrest, Gemma Alcott has been in hiding as a subversive. She’s found a home—and someone to love—but she’s never forgotten the love she left behind.

Taylor, a young Task Force officer, believes wholeheartedly in his mission and in the danger posed by subversives. He believes in his mission so much that he detained and imprisoned his own father. But when his first love, Gemma, is captured by a rogue Task Force unit, his loyalties are put to the test.

Facing interrogation and possible death, Gemma must summon the strength—and faith—to protect her friends, no matter the cost.

And Taylor must decide if he’s fighting against evil…or for it.

I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own. 

Review:

So, this was an impulse read for me. I rarely ever read a book without reading reviews first, but as this is the first book by this author and no one else had reviewed it yet, I basically went in blind. Luckily, though, I was not disappointed.

The Christian dystopian genre is always hit or miss for me, but I really liked how Rood made it work. Something that jumped out to me especially was that the setting for this book was real. A lot of times, dystopian worlds are so far removed from our current society that it is almost more like reading fantasy or sci-fi. This book, however, made pop culture references, drove the same cars that we do, and was clearly our world (but with a lot of additional hostility towards Christians). I was never able to pinpoint a year that it took place in, but that added to the impact for me. Because it was “my world” it made me think about how easy it would be for America to get to this place of open hostility towards religion. It was a little unnerving, but interesting just the same. I generally find that dystopian fiction makes me think more than other genres of fiction, and this book held true with that.

On a more specific note, the story was great. So much happened, but it took place over the span of five days. To say it was a hard book to put down is an understatement (I read it in 24 hours if that tells you anything). The characters were great and the plot was suspenseful. It was so refreshing to read a captivating book that didn’t have explicit content in it. There were a few scenes that had slightly gory descriptions, but that was it.

Overall, my only complaint is that now I have to wait forever to read the sequel!

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