When Jess Lourey announced she was writing a Young Adult dystopian thriller I was hooked, because it’s something different than what I’m used to.

I thought it might have a fantasy vibe to it but on that I was mistaken.

Rose has to be someplace but she isn’t in a hurry, not today, not with what is awaiting her. She’s in the lab of apothecary house making some last-minute medicine to give to the elderly before she can’t be of service anymore, because once you marry into another house you can’t practice your own affinity anymore you have to take theirs. She’s in no rush go walk down that altar but she knows her time to delay is running out. She walks to the chapel with slow steps, stretching the minutes when her twin brother catches up to her, telling her Simon has let him into the Record Keepers vault and what he has seen, changes everything but there is no time to explain because they’re already there she can’t stall any longer.

Her family is supposed to sit in front, the only person exempt from this ceremony is her grandmother due to her age and fragile health but she can’t see her mother, neither can she locate her brother only her aunt and uncle. She’s walking to her future husband, Gryphon Tzu; son of Tarek; Guardian and leader. When she hears something weird in the music, her brain trying to recognize the sound… but then, a scream and a loud thud. When she looks behind her, she sees her mother crumpled to the floor with her brother standing over her with a knife but the knife is clean. Before she can even register what’s happening Jonas is taken by the guards and Jarek is telling everyone that the wedding will be postponed, instead of the ceremony people will attend a harvest. Jonas has been put in a basket and will be going up and over the wall.

A wall I hear you think? Yes, a wall with deadly vines that runs over them. What the people of this community believe is that only death awaits you on the other side. Once a month a person gets harvested, being chosen is a privilege; but people who have done a crime will also harvest.

Rose can’t go back to her house, she has to stay with her new family but she won’t make it easy on them, they have condemned her brother and they will pay for that. The last thing Jonas told her was ‘We are not what we seem, go look into the vault.’ But it isn’t that easy, the vault is inside the record keepers building and there is almost always someone there. Rose keeps wondering why the rules that were instated a long time ago keep changing for newer rules that are far more gruesome.

Wandering about Noah’s Valley is a no go, everyone has their own tasks they need to do so there isn’t much time for yourself and with curfew in place and guardian patrolling you don’t really have freedom to do so. Rose does attempt to look around though, she even made friends with some people her own age that have had enough of these new rules and methods being used. They think it’s time to take a stand, so they take up learning how to fight and the one teaching them? Will blow your mind, but throughout all this you will still question his loyalty up until the end.

What is Jarek’s endgame? How did the Vex come about? Will the valley survive on the dominance of someone that seeks power or will he destroy it all?

This book was a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 star but with the ending being so open I am wondering if there’ll be a next one.