Gated by Amy Christine Parker - OPTIONAL

Gated by Amy Christine Parker, 335 pgs.  Random House, 2013.  $17.99 

Content:  Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: R (slit throat) 

HS- OPTIONAL

Lyla lost her sister when she was five years old, and her parents withdrew from the outside world and joined the Community, a compound of twenty families led by Pioneer.  Pioneer is considered a prophet who receives revelation about the end of the world, which is coming soon, and he has gathered these twenty families because they are chosen to survive the destruction and start life again in a purified world.  Lyla meets a boy named Cody when his father, the sheriff, comes to investigate the enclosed community.  Lyla is confused about her attraction to Cody, especially because people from the outside are supposed to be evil.  Lyla starts to realize that maybe the world that Pioneer has created is based on lies, but is it too late to help her friends and family.  

This is an interesting read that makes you wonder what people who join cults must believe.  The characters aren’t relatable and the parents’ actions were unbelievable and frustrating, but you keep reading because you want to know if the girl is going to figure out the problem.  As a reader you feel the story slowly move towards a conflict, but the last one hundred pages are creepy and live up to the label on the front calling this book a thriller.  It was middle school all the way, until the disgusting murder at the end, and then it moved to high school.  

  Reviewer, C. Peterson.