From the moment I saw this cover I couldn’t wait to read the book.
Set in The Innovations Academy, we meet a group of privately educated young girls who are being given the best education their families can provide. They are encouraged to be their best, but from the start there are signs that this might not be the best thing for the girls.
Our main focus is Mena, a model student, who shows signs of discomfort with her surroundings. She begins to question what’s happening, and starts to see signs that things are not quite what the girls have been led to believe.
The first half of part one – where we start to read the clues given about what might be happening – felt slow and I wasn’t enjoying it. However, once we started to see Mena probe further, I was gripped.
The reality of this world was, sadly, testimony to what are regarded as common attitudes surrounding gender even now. Thankfully the events of the novel showed these views being challenged, and even gave hope that they might – in time – change. Though this works well as a stand-alone, I think book two might answer some of the questions posed by events of this part of the story.