“It’s no good hating them. They can’t feel it, and it will only make you bitter.” — p. unknown
Roselle Sword (neé St. Sismode) has been the chosen weapon of her mother all her life. Roselle is secondborn, you see (Only Firstborns are allowed to procreate, and only two children are permissible even if one of the two dies). Secondborns are given to the government, essentially, as chattel; most go to the military but it is implied some become personal assistants or secretaries or the like, depending on their “Fate” (Sword is a fate, also Stone, Diamond, and others). Thirdborns (or later) are murdered outright by the Census when they are discovered — and they are discovered, as each person has a marker placed beneath the skin on their hand at birth.
Roselle, unlike most Secondborns, has spent her life in the spotlight. She is the daughter of the St. Sismode family, who are the Primes of Swords, and her mother has had camera drones following Roselle around. Because Roselle is dutiful. Because she accepts what her mother tells her, even when everything inside her is screaming about the wrongness of it. She accepts outwardly what she believes she cannot change.
Until her time of Transition arrives, when suddenly it appears Roselle is a larger playing piece than she realized, even as a Secondborn.
I want to write the story of my life to suit me. I want to see the world without restrictions. I want to use my mind to obtain freedom… – p. unknown
At Transition, her mother tries to kill her for supposedly attempting to kill her firstborn brother, Roselle is attacked by a group of rebellious second- (third-, fourth-, fifth-) borns before she arrives at her destination, she has cameras on her the whole time, and she ends up going through Transition (where she is stripped of everything indicating who she was, of her possessions, of her family) alone after she is kidnapped and held by a Census officer who is a psychopath and obsessed with getting to be the one to spill her blood. Not to mention the two or three people who tell her she’s likely to die on the front lines early thanks to her being a child of the Prime of Swords.
How she manages to save herself — and not alone, she’s not alone in that any more than she’s been alone for most of her life, though this time it’s not a screen audience watching and helping behind the scenes — well, that’s where the story lies. It’s a little bit typical of dystopian novels — several places I caught myself thinking of The Hunger Games — but not so much so that I got frustrated.
Good for those who like fantasy, sci-fi, those who like unusual worlds, and those who won’t be triggered by implied and outright child abuse/abuse in general.
This is a part of a trilogy; the second book, Traitor Born, is out already and the third book, Rebel Born, will come out in June 2019 but this one stands alone just fine.