Elise is like any other high school senior. Except for the part about having a thriving social life, or caring about what anybody else thinks of her, or following the rules, or ...
Truth is--Elise Andrek isn't like most other high school seniors. She's a programmer, and she's good at it. She's bright, intelligent, and knows what she wants, is focused on getting it, and doesn't mind breaking the rules or subverting authority to get where she wants to go.
This is precisely why her life is turned inside out in this "edge of your seat" dystopian set in the lush, and often treacherous, Pacific Northwest.
Events unfold at breakneck speeds when Elise becomes suspicious that she is being used by the government to design a game which mimics real-life, violent scenarios depicting the eradication of those unwanted populations the government deems underworlders.
Her worst fears are confirmed when she realizes she is responsible for the success of the government's mass murder of most of her graduating class. In the midst of the tragedy, Elise uncovers a nationwide conspiracy that reveals her class is just the beginning.
After escaping the murderous graduation trials, she becomes a fugitive on the run, caught between an unforgiving regime and a rising faction of resistance known as the Recalcitrants. Things become even more complicated when Bren, the only boy she has ever had serious eyes for, tries to rescue her, and she's not sure he can be trusted.
As the program she designed begins going online, more graduating classes are being marked for extermination. If Elise can survive her harsh new world, she must somehow infiltrate the government's protected servers and take the program offline. No matter how close she gets, no matter how much she tries to protect her friends, or the boy she wants for herself, the risks are high--the consequences even higher.
In a world that is not just possible, but likely, Lauren Lynne pulls no punches in establishing herself as a leader among a new generation of dystopian fiction incorporating life-altering decisions, treacherous betrayals, and romance that gives us hope.
