The pursuit of youth and longevity dates way back to ancient history, and remains notable among those with power and wealth. What if science were to turn that long-held dream into reality someday? Would you live in a world that defies the natural process of aging if given the chance? You may answer differently after reading ForeverChild: A Novel of the Future by Mark Lavine. Check out this fantastic book and enter to win a signed copy, along with a signed poster and a Kindle Paperwhite!
My Review:
Fast-paced and full of suspense, ForeverChild is an entrancing dystopian science fiction about survival, sacrifice, social justice, and what constitutes a meaningful life. Set in three-hundred years into the future, the story follows two ten-year-old boys, whose fates make a dramatic turn as a result of a natural disaster. Seelin, who has never left the comfort and security of the Great Hive of San Jose since birth, gets stranded in the outside world plagued by hunger, poverty, and virus infection. Kianno, an outsider constantly struggling for survival, gives up his fight and agrees to take Seelin's place in the hive. Inhabitants of the hives are known as forever children, who are able to retain the physical appearance of a youngster for hundreds of years with the help of the regulators. Meanwhile, they have to stay confined inside their luxurious cage-like complexes, being tracked and monitored constantly for their protection.
Thirty years later, Kianno sneaks out of the hive in search of answers about his past, but only finds himself captured by Seelin and forced to become a subject of the outsiders' conversion experiment. Will Kianno learn to embrace his delayed adulthood and return to the world where he originally belongs? Will Seelin succeed in destroying the hive from the inside? It's impossible to predict the directions in which their life paths extend until the very end.
With vivid descriptions and imaginative details, the author masterfully constructs a complex, technologically advanced, yet socially disintegrated future world that the readers can easily visualize and immerse in. The pacing and the order in which the events are introduced are perfect to keep the readers on the edge of their seats. The stress and struggle the characters have to go through feel real and relatable. And more importantly, this story of the future urges us to reflect upon the present.
While mocking the unhealthy obsession with a youthful look, the book explicitly or implicitly raises questions about pressing social issues such as institutionalized segregation and inequality, monopoly over critical resources like land and water, conflict between the elite class and the underprivileged, crime and violence intensified by poverty and oppression, governance based on deception and manipulation, ethics of medical research, and more. It stimulates young adults to be critical thinkers and to engage in more in-depth discussions on social values, social justice and social change.
Action-packed and thought-provoking, ForeverChild makes a worthy read for sci-fi and adventure lovers.
About the Book:
Ages: 13-18 | 315 Pages
Publisher: Mark Lavine (2022) | ISBN-13: 9798218130947
What if you could live hundreds of years – but never age?
In the year 2315 you can live for hundreds of years and never age past eleven. That is, if you’re one of the lucky ones. But the not-so-lucky ones are disturbingly close, and they’re threatening your safety, security, and even your deepest beliefs. Soon, it will be all-out war.
Among a chosen few, life expectancy is now hundreds of years; these are the forever children, and science has found a way to keep them in a nearly endless childhood state. Secure in their giant hives, they have left the outsiders, who must live natural lives, to fend for themselves.
This is the story of Kianno and Seelin, two youths who find themselves trading places in this strange new world, one leading the life of a forever child and the other growing up in the anarchy of the outside world.
Their lives come together in surprising and unexpected ways, as they both become involved in a fierce struggle between the two worlds.
Discover for yourself a future world of eternal childhood, and the nightmares and battles which erupt from this seemingly innocent society.
But the quest for endless youth comes at a cost.
How will Kianno and Seelin survive in this battle for eternal life?
Purchase Links: Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes and Noble
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