Captives

Title: Captives
Author: Jill Williamson
Publisher: Zondervan
Pages: 415
ISBN: 978-0-310-72422-3
Publication Date: February 19th, 2013

Synopsis:

One choice could destroy them all.
When eighteen-year-old Levi returned from Denver City with his latest scavenged finds, he never imagined he’d find his village of Glenrock decimated, loved ones killed, and many—including his fiancée, Jem—taken captive. Now alone, Levi is determined to rescue what remains of his people, even if it means entering the Safe Lands, a walled city that seems anything but safe.

Omar knows he betrayed his brother by sending him away, but helping the enforcers was necessary. Living off the land and clinging to an outdated religion holds his village back. The Safe Lands has protected people since the plague decimated the world generations ago … and its rulers have promised power and wealth beyond Omar’s dreams.

Meanwhile, their brother Mason has been granted a position inside the Safe Lands, and may be able to use his captivity to save not only the people of his village, but also possibly find a cure for the virus that threatens everyone within the Safe Lands’ walls. Will Mason uncover the truth hidden behind the Safe Lands’ façade before it’s too late?

Review:
What a great book to kick off the New Year with! Captives follows the small community of Glenrock as they are upended against their will and forced into servitude in the Safe Lands. The story has four different points of views, you follow three brothers, Levi, Mason, and Omar and their friend Shaylinn.

Levi is the eldest of the brothers, he is the son that their father favors the most. He is a hunter, he is one of the best scavengers, and he is about to be engaged to one of the sweetest girls in their community. Mason is the most bookish of the siblings. He loves to study, but not just anything, his specialty is healing, just like his mother. He has never been one for hunting, he is a vegetarian, which his father has not been very supportive of. Omar, the youngest, he is the artist of the family. His father hardly has a nice thing to say to him. All he wants is respect and admiration from his family and he is willing to try what ever he can to get it. Shaylinn, has been a friend to the family for her whole life. She however battles daily the taunts she has heard about how she is ugly and fat. These problems soon become not so important when the Safe Lands invades their community and captures all the women and young men.

Arriving, the people of Glenrock learn that the Safe Lands is slowly dying of the thin sickness. The Safe Lands has not had a child born to them in 3 years to their people. The only hope for survival is to bring in outsiders to have children for them. Mason, Levi, and Shaylinn learn that when a women has a baby in the Safe Lands, she doesn't stay the baby's mother. In the Safe Lands, no one can "own" a person....be a parent, it's the governments job to raise the children. All a woman is is a surrogate, she has no rights to the child, and neither does the male donor, even if they want that family.

Not wanting the Glenrock women to go through this, Mason and Levi do their best to protect the women in their lives.

Captives was an engrossing story. It offered a modern version Rome or Ancient Babylon through the Safe Lands. Even though this land was filled with color and the most modern of technology, it also offered death to whomever joined in with them. I enjoyed this story to the end and I can't wait to read its sequel!

There is a lot of talk of surrogacy in a teenager and sex in this story along with drugs. These topics are presented in away that they add to the story, but aren't flaunted in a manner that is condoning the behavior.

Too Read!
5 out of 5