Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

In the years following the Flare, an electrostatic disaster that literally fried all technology on Earth, people had to relearn the basic art of living. Some did; many didn’t. And the repercussions saw many children abandoned and placed in government-sanctioned homes. Saylor, so named because she was found as an infant on a battered, abandoned boat, was one of these parentless children. Placed in a home for abandoned children, Saylor connects with other girls similarly abandoned. Her best friends, Micah, Denise and Patricia, are her family. So, at sixteen, when one is told she will be taken in by a foster family and another is to be sent away to a different home, and Saylor, ever rebellious, is to be sent to some sort of detention facility way across the country, it is time to take action, or lose the only family that any of them has ever known.

Their choice of escape? A sad-looking sailboat at the nearby marina, waiting, calling for the girls to take it out on the waters. And they do. And all goes well until the storm hits and their carefully planned escape leads them into another trap. But is it a trap? Or is this isolated island in the Caribbean that no one’s ever heard going to be the end of their dream of freedom? For Saylor, at least, it means a very grueling undertaking as the powers that be demand that she train for their military. And train she does, exceptionally well. But, as her training officer, Logan, points out, she must find her purpose and she must believe in both her purpose and in herself. Quite a lot to ask for someone who is just turning seventeen.

Kadee Carder’s young adult science fiction novel, Insurrection, is a powerful story that addresses the ultimate possibilities of ‘what if’. A disaster wipes out technology, but it doesn’t wipe out the human race. Instead, it creates a whole new world of possibilities and, in this world, a group of girls, determined to stay together, pave their own way, or at least they try to. The main character, Saylor, is both likeable and believable. She sets a standard that would appeal to young female readers and, as such, makes an excellent role model. She is strong, both physically and psychologically. She is a power to be reckoned with. She is determined and committed to her goals. And, as her trainer says later in the novel, she is ‘insurrection’, but in a good way. The plot is thrilling and intense and leads the reader to a very compelling and unexpected climax and resolution. This is the first book in a trilogy, so there’s more Saylor stories to excite young readers. Fantastic!