Review: Extinction of All Children by L.J. Epps

Extinction of All Children by L.J. Epps
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a decent start to a trilogy. It has quite a few of the typical YA dystopian tropes. The main character sticks up for what she believes in and finds herself learning that there is more to the oppressive government that she lives in than she knows. The story follows Emma Whisperer, the last child to be born and live to turn 18. Emma lives in Territory L, which is where the poor live, and no one is permitted to have children because the President determined poor people cannot afford to take care of children. If you break the law you are jailed and your baby is killed after birth. Emma is not a supporter of many of the President's laws and doesn't understand why the people have put up with the President for so long when democracy used to rule in the past. Emma is honored at a ball and when she is given an opportunity to give a speech, she says what is on her mind instead of the propaganda President wants her to say. For her disobedience, Emma is jailed for 30 days and during her sentence she learns why her family has be so oppressed, why the laws are so strict, and makes some friends and enemies during her stay. The President gives her an ultimatum to end her jail time, become a guard and take back her traitorous words or stay in jail for standing up for what is right. Emma has more than befriended one of the guards and they decide that if Emma becomes a guard, they can fight for what is right from the inside. When they learn the President wants to make a fool of Emma and hurt her family, they decide to run for one of the other territories. The book ends with a bit of a cliffhanger but it isn't too terrible.

I found this fairly predictable and that the characters lacked development. Emma wants to go up against the President but she has no idea what she stands for and she never thinks things through. I'm all for a character making decisions in the heat of the moment, but Emma is portrayed as kind of a dumb, immature girl who keeps making bad decisions and doesn't think about the impact to her family or anyone else until someone points them out to her. Then she has guilt about what she's done or is going to do after the fact. I hope that in the next two books she grows as a character and if she is going to be the leader of some sort of revolution she grows up and starts thinking things through just a bit. I also couldn't get into the love triangle, it felt awkward. The writing was a bit redundant and repetitive at times.

Overall this was OK. I have the other two books in the series and I liked it enough to continue on with the series.

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