Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

It seems as if the flood of teen fiction about the either vampires, zombies or werewolves is starting to ebb, and dystopian fiction is all the rage. Usually there has been some cataclysmic event in the past and a new society has emerged. The society is usually ruled by a government who is ensuring that the past doesn't repeat itself. Once good, often the ruling party becomes entrenched in enforcing rules and regulations. Until someone, usually the protagonist, begins to question the rules. The choices the main character make effect both their lives and the lives of those around them.

Birthmarked is set in a future after some catastrophic environmental event has left the world harsh and dry. A society has been established within a walled city called the Enclave. Gaia Stone and her parents live in a town which as assembled outside the walled city. The city provides them with some food, limited water and basic healthcare. Without this, those outside would not survive. In return the walled city asks for a quota of babies to be “advanced” into the privileged society within the walled city. Gaia is starting to learn her mother's trade, that of a midwife, in helping the women in her sector deliver babies and 'advancing' the first 3 babies she delivers each month into the walled city. After delivering her first baby, Gaia comes home to find that her parents have been arrested and taken to prison within the Enclave. Wanting to find her parents, who have been so loyal to the Enclave, Gaia finds a way into the Enclave. She discovers that the society that she believed to be ideal and wonderful is not all it appears to be, and that the Enclave is genetically damaged. She hold a key to deciphering the genetic problems of the Enclave. Gaia needs to decide whether the answer will help society or give the Enclave further opportunities to restrict the society they have created.

Loved the book and the dystopian society it creates. Gaia is a strong-willed heroine who will do all she can to right what wrongs she sees in the world. However, the world is never black and white, throw a love interest into the mix, and decisions become harder for her to make. I could relate to the book as it reflected how I was as a teenager and some of the decisions that I had to make. As a teenager I was very 'black and white', things and situations were either wrong or right. This created lots of tension as not much in life is 'black and white' and I had to learn to make decisions in a grey world.

8/10

The Unidentified – Rae Mariz

As a mother of a teenager the premise of this books is frightening. Imagine that the government no longer has any budget to contribute to education. Along come big business corporations that offer to take over the education of the nation. School becomes one huge market for these corporations to advertise their products as well as getting some education content into the day. These corporations secretly monitor every ones friendships and activities. The school are run like one big social networked computer game where points are awarded to students based on their performance. It is actually becomes called the Game. Completing assignments will get you points but you can get easier points from competing in games and competitions that may or may not have educational value. Popularity is the key as corporations target trend-setters with their products such as touch screen devices, clothing, make-up, sports gear. This is called being 'branded' and is the dream of almost every student.
Katey, aka Kid, isn't really interested in being branded, in fact she just wants to make music and hang out with her small group of friends. However an anti-establishment event of a mock suicide that protests the power structure in the school by the 'Unidentified' makes her question the whole educational game and she strives to find out who this group is. In doing so such is identified as a trend-setter and is 'branded'. This is the last thing she wants and it isolates her from her close friends but it is an answer to her families tight financial situation. She soon discovers that being branded means that she gives up the rights to her ideas, her privacy and her identity. In finding out the identity of the “Unidentified” she tries to revolt against the situation she has found herself in, without loosing herself.
I was attracted to this book's dystopian society where the possibility that education could be taken over and young people exploited by big business is very real. It contains some of the big issues for every teen that of identification. Who are we? What defines us? How important are our friend? How important are our families? How do I know what is right or wrong?
The Game seems addictive and is perhaps reminiscent of Facebook and Twitter in the way that students communicate and network together with mobile devices such as ipads which gives sense that this scenario could happen in the not-to-distant future.
Here's hoping that education never gets mixed with big marketing corporations. And if it does that there are students such as Kid who don't get sucked in. 7/10