Jadeite is a typical teenage girl living the typical teen life—if you call an enclosed society where everything is controlled, a test which determines your profession, people disappearing for challenging the rules, and no one being allowed outside the drone-guarded boundaries of United Society “typical.”
But when Jadeite must go against the societies’ rules to acquire medicine for her sick brother from the primitive people who live over the ridge, her eyes are opened to what the perfect society really is—a mirage built on lies and murder—she must put on her own facade and fool her teachers, and especially Mattie, the future leader of United Society who has marked Jadeite to be his wife, to believe that all is well in United Society.
At least until she can attempt her escape.
I was hooked from the first page of Jadeite’s Journey. Stein does a wonderful job of creating a futuristic world, located between western Colorado and Denver, her vivid descriptions transporting me into the story where I could see, taste, smell, feel, and hear what was happening along with Jadeite.
While the genre is science fiction, I found the story to have “edge-of-your-seat” thriller elements and a romantic subplot which blossoms into a poisonous obsession.
As Jadeite learns the truth about United Society and Mattie and how dangerous they both are, I could feel my pulse race as she snuck around the streets and crossed over the border, avoiding guard drones and citizens who would be happy to turn her in, all to risk her life for medicine for her brother.
This book asks some interesting questions about society on a whole, one being whether or not it is worth giving up one’s freedoms, personal ambitions, individuality, and creativity for the good of the whole.
Can a perfect society be attained or is it all an illusion?
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys well-written YA science fiction.
Jadeite’s Journey is available at Amazon.com
Rebecca Carpenter, copy editor and author 