Review of Birth Marked by Caragh M O'Brien

Birth Marked

By Caragh M O’Brien

This book is set in the future around the year 2400. Earth is a dry, harsh place that has been turned into almost a wasteland from environmental consequences. Gaia is the young 16 year old mid-wife who lives outside the walls of the Enclave in Wharfton. The lives of the residents in Wharfton are simple but hard as they serve the Enclave. As a mid-wife it has always been her duty to turn over her quota of babies to the Enclave each month. She has learned her trade from her mother Bonnie. When Gaia’s parents are arrested by the guards of the Enclave she is forced to question everything that she has been taught to believe. She sneaks into the Enclave to try and save her parents from prison. She is determined to succeed or die trying. Little does she know that she will learn more than she ever wanted to and wished should have fled to the Dead Forest when she had the chance.

It took me a little bit to get into this book. Once I did I wanted to know more about the characters Ms. O’Brien had created in this cruel, barren world. It of course has all of the elements of a love story. Gaia and Leon fall unexpectedly in love and try to save their relationship as well as those around them.  The story stops very abruptly at the end and I was sorely disappointed. I was quite upset until I realized that there is going to be another book in this series coming out this year – Prized expected in November 2011.

I would give this book 3 stars. Worth the read even if a little slow at the beginning. I will be getting the next in the series in hopes that it will answer more questions and to find out more about Leon and Gaia.

~Melissa