#5 The Forsaken by Lissa M. Stasse

Stars: *****

Genre: YA, Dystopian, Romance, Survival, Adventure, Action

Alenna Shawcross is a orphan of the UNA (United Northern Alliance, a super country consisting of Canada, Mexico and the US.). Alenna is shy and quiet, never fitting in. And then we have the GPPT, the exam every teenager takes to see if they have a high capacity for brutal violence. If the GPPT says you are capable of brutal violence you get sent to Prison Island Alpha a.k.a The Wheel (a remote island with a life expectancy of just two years.)

Alenna knows she will not be sent to the Wheel, she has never shown any inclination to violence but somehow, after her GPPT she wakes up in The Wheel.

In the Wheel she is taken in by the villagers, a group of kids who are in a war with the drones, the other group in the island. Alenna makes friends in the village and meets a blue eyed boy who seems very familiar and who she is drawn to. 

Slowly Alenna discovers how the island works and about the strange illness that takes some and the weird machines that take others. 

Alenna and her friends go on a search to find a way out of the island, never expecting what they will find.

Alenna starts out as an orphan with no special survival skill, not like Katniss (Hunger Games) who has an incredible aim with the bow and arrow or Saba (Blood Red Road) who can fight and win. Alenna is just a normal city girl and when she is dropped in the Wheel she has to find a way to survive, learning from those around her. 

This book was full of suprises that I never expected. So, if you are a fan of the Hunger Games, or any other dystopian triology, you might like to read this book.