Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1) by Aimee Carter is a Science Fiction Young Adult novel. I received an ARC through Netgalley.
The story is about a girl named Kitty Doe who just turned seventeen. And in the world she lives in , we get hints that is the future, when you turn seventeen you have to take a test. This test will decide wich rank you are and therefore it will decide your future. Kitty hopes she’ll get a IV: not very high but high enough to have hopes for a better future.
There was nothing special about me – I was just another Extra who should never have been born in the first place. I was a waste.
But because she can’t read she gets points a lower score. She gets a III. Very disappointed Kitty returns to her group home. She’s lived there as long as she can remember. She is er parents second child, and there being a one child rule made her a Doe.
There is one person Kitty will risk her life for: her boyfriend Benji. He will take his test in a few weeks, and everybody thinks he’ll do very well . Kitty is hopeful for his future, but in the back of her mind she knows she might hold him back: she’s just a III. Benji has his own plans: he wants to run away with her before he takes his test. But Kitty doesn’t want to let him ruin his future for her. She decides to go to a friend of her, working for her until she and Benji can get back together.
After just eleven days of training, I was expected to step into a pair of the most closely watched shoes in the country, and I had to be flawless.
At her first night, she is sold to the highest bidder. But than something unexpected happens. The prime minister enters the room and offers her a chance t become a VII: a member of the most powerful family in the country – the highest rank possible. Stunned by the idea Kitty accepts. But she didn’t know what the catch was… Days later she wakes up in a strange room. Her face is not her own anymore. She has been masked into Lila Hart, the niece of the Prime minister. Lila died in a mysterious accident, but when she was alive she secretly fostered a rebellion. And Kitty needs to stop that, tell the people what she said wasn’t true: bring the peace back to the country.
She find out things in aren’t what they seem. And she can’t do much about It: if she doesn’t listen, they’ll kill her. And they use Benji to threaten her…
I felt this story was a bit The Selection meets The Hunger Games. A society with ranks, a low ranked girl no one expects much of changing the world and a love story. But the story felt original and that is what is very important to me. It was a nice story to read, but it didn’t grab me from page one. It took some time to get into it.
3.5 out of 5 stars
