Gated

Gated

YA fiction
"She thought the evil lived outside the walls. She was wrong."
These chilling words come from the cover of Amy Christine Parker's
Gated. If you are a fan of dystopias or thrillers that grab you in
the first chapter and don't let you loose til the last page, you are
in for a real treat.
Lyla's family has lived through scary, terrible times. They
resided in New York City during 9/11. Even before then, however, they
had endured a personal tragedy. Her older sister, Karen, was abducted
in broad daylight, never to return.
Not long after their world fell apart Pioneer entered Lyla's
family's life, brightening up their gloom, offering what they longed
for the most--safety in a frightening, unpredictable world. They
became part of Mandrodage Meadows. Ostensibly it's an isolated
farming community. However, it harbors a chilling secret. Underneath
their buildings and land is a gigantic shelter members call the silo.
It is where they, the chosen, will escape to in the rapidly
approaching apocalypse when the rest of humanity is basically wiped
out. Outsiders and information about the world past the gates are
carefully kept out of the gated community. Pioneer is revered as a
benevolent father figure and savior.
As the date for going underground draws closer Lyla begins to
experience troubling thoughts. When a police officer comes on an
investigation, she is assigned to give his teen age son a tour of
Mondrodage Mountains. Even though he's one of the unchosen she can't
get him off her mind. He doesn't seem as evil as she's been led to
believe outsiders are.
What if Pioneer, about to lock his whole community into an
underground shelter for five years, is wrong?
On a personal note, quite awhile ago my sister was into similar
rapture beliefs. She never became geographically isolated like Ayla
did. But mentally she did buy into the world ending on a certain date
several times. The true believers would get swooped into heaven while
the rest were left to dally with the devil. Only it never happened.
I guess that's why I didn't get worried at Y2K or the end of the
calendar. It felt like same old, same old.
A great big shout goes out to the college students and profs who are
hopefully enjoying their spring break.
Julia Emily Hathaway




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