Pawn by Aimee Carter

Kitty Doe has just sat the most important test in her life, and because she can not read she has become a III - a status tattooed forever on the back of her neck.  As a III she is one of the lowest of the low, barely a person, someone who will spend the rest of her life working to support her "betters" and barely making enough to exist.  Worse still, she is being sent from the only home she has ever known in D.C. to the streets of Denver - where she will be miles from the only home she has ever known, and the only people she has loved and been loved by in return.  It is a bitter truth to swallow, and rather than face the misery of an unknown future Kitty decides to change her fate - and wakes up in the skin of Lila Hart.

Lila Hart is part of the Hart family, the family that rules the remains of America with a tight fist, a fist that controls the puppet actions of the supposed patriarch Daxton.  Kitty is given a choice, she can go along with their plans and pretend to be Lila, or she can be killed and disposed of - she may have the face of Lila Hart, and bear the VII tattoo of the family, but it is all just an illusion and Kitty quickly comes to realise that she is a rat in a maze of twisting and turning betrayals and counter betrayals.  Kitty will have to make some life changing decisions, decisions that could make her dreams come true or shatter them completely.

Pawn is a fast paced and convoluted story that introduces Kitty and her world through an explosive story that barely leaves you time to breath as the conspiracies and betrayals come thick and fast.  At the centre of a vicious power struggle she doesn't understand, Kitty is left feeling overwhelmed and confused as she tries to figure out who the good guys are and what the ultimate goal is.  Her life is radically different from what she would have been as a mere III, but is the grass really greener as a VII?  In a carefully orchestrated and silent battle, the Hart family struggles to gain the upper hand, everyone striving to reach their own goals no matter what the cost.

Pawn introduces us to a world that could be our (relativelly) near future, one where the resources of the world became strained and the only way to make sure humanity could survive was to divide up the resources based on what people can offer society in return.  If you are smart or can provide essential services then your life is pretty good - as a IV or higher you can expect a good life.  If you test poorly and society can not see your value then you are lucky to get enough to eat and a roof over your head - and as a III your life expectancy is well below what it is now.  It is a scary future to consider, and the worst part is you can easily see it happening through a series of "reasonable" changes in times of desperation.  This series shows a lot of promise and hopefully Captive will not suffer from "sequel blah".

If you like this book then try:

• Inside out by Maria V. Snyder
• Eve by Anna Carey
• The testing by Joelle Charbonneau
• The hunger games by Suzanne Collins
•  XVI by Julia Karr
• Slated by Teri Terry
• Article 5 by Kristin Simmons
• The limit by Kristin Landon
• Breathe by Sarah Crossan
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Numbers by Rachel Ward
• Proxy by Alex London
• Slated by Teri Terry
• The barcode tattoo by Suzanne Weyn
• ACID by Emma Pass
• When we wake by Karen Healey
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• In the after by Demitria Lunetta
• Reboot by Amy Tintera

Reviewed by Brilla