Book picks similar to
Undesirable by Liz Iavorschi-Braun
reviewed
young-adult
s-dystopian
sci-fi
Forged
Jennifer Rush - 2013
When Dani O'Brien entered the Branch, she planned to trade her freedom so that her family could have a better life. But joining up with the mysterious organization is more than she bargained for. Branch head Connor watches over her closely--too closely. The training is brutal, the experiments are secret, and the missions promise to be anything but ordinary. The only thing getting Dani through each day is the hope that she'll run into Sam--a young man, about her age, who wears the world on his shoulders.Find out how it all began in this short-story prequel to Jennifer Rush's thrilling and suspenseful Altered series.
Aqua
Tracy Korn - 2015
Love it, love it, love it!"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hold your breath…The future is three miles underwater. And Jazwyn Ripley's time has come.Earth’s atmosphere will only support a few more generations, and most of advanced society has already relocated to the sea. To survive, only one option remains for the Topsiders—get into Gaia Sur, the elite academy on the ocean floor.But after Jazwyn Ripley trains a lifetime for the chance, something is wrong in the interviews. Her evaluation isn’t like those of her soul-rattled classmates, and now, Arco Hart is desperate to protect her from something he won't talk about. Cryptic messages coming from the earth's core. A charming, but infamous rival who knows why.Everything is telling her to walk away, but for the struggling class at the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but down. The road to everything the cadets ever wanted turns out to lead somewhere they never intended to go, and one decision will change the course of their lives for good:Continue on the scripted path, or chase something deeper?✔ Adrenaline rush action.✔ Heart-stopping romance.Dive into the first book of The Elements series and be swept away!NEW SECOND EDITION WITH BONUS CONTENT!
Otherworld
Jason Segel - 2017
They say it’s addictive — that you’ll want to stay forever. They promise Otherworld will make all your dreams come true.Simon thought Otherworld was a game. Turns out he knew nothing. Otherworld is the next phase of reality. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted.And it’s about to change humanity forever.Welcome to the Otherworld. No one could have seen it coming.
ONE MISSION: Something you knew isn't something you know
Manith J. - 2016
She went on this secret journey to pursue a nuclear weapon and it brought her to meet two good men who changed her life from bad to good and from good to bad at the same time.
The Pawn in the Portal
Nick Cole - 2016
Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.
The Unquiet
Mikaela Everett - 2015
She is the perfect sleeper-soldier. But she’s beginning to suspect she is not a good person. The two Earths are identical in almost every way. Two copies of every city, every building, even every person. But the people from the second Earth know something their duplicates do not—two versions of the same thing cannot exist. They—and their whole planet—are slowly disappearing. Lira has been trained mercilessly since childhood to learn everything she can about her duplicate, to be a ruthless sleeper-assassin who kills that other Lirael and steps seamlessly into her life.An intricate, literary stand-alone from an astonishing new voice, The Unquiet takes us deep inside the psyche of a strong teenage heroine struggling with what she has been raised to be and who she really is. Fans of eerily futuristic and beautifully crafted stories such as Never Let Me Go, Orphan Black, and Fringe will find themselves haunted by this unsettling debut.
The Samantha Project
Stephanie Karpinske - 2012
Then one horrible night a sudden tragedy sparks a series of events that change her life forever. Soon she’s told she’s part of a top secret genetics experiment run by a global corporation that’s been watching her for years and waiting for the right time to take her back. That time is now.Samantha’s enhanced genetics are finally starting to express the powers the corporation wants and her only chance for freedom is to go on the run, leaving behind her old life and the people she loves. Using her new abilities to help her, she makes her way to a town far from home where she encounters two people who are eerily familiar. These two people will give her clues to her past but also warnings for her future. It’s the beginning of a journey in which Samantha will learn all the secrets of who she really is and why she was created.
Uncanny Valley
C.A. Gray - 2017
Once Andy is ready to settle down, she’s sure he will discover that she is his soulmate. After several small parts on stage, Rebecca knows she can become a renowned actress. Her writing also shows promise as a future author. Robots perform most human jobs that can be automated, leaving many free to pursue their personal creative interests.But Rebecca's mother Karen fears the new world of robots, and insists her brilliant daughter join a university research team, studying the hazards of a complete robotic economy. Rebecca's father Quentin was obsessed with the subject to a degree that even her mother considered absurd, prior to his untimely death. So long as she can reserve enough of her time to pursue her true passions on the side, Rebecca half-heartedly agrees to join the research team, if only to please her widowed mother. There she joins a post-doc named Liam, whose conspiracy theories rival even those of her late father. Liam is convinced that world Republic leader William Halpert’s worldwide challenge for researchers to develop synthetic creativity will lead not to the promised utopia, in which every kind of human suffering has been eradicated, but rather to an apocalypse. Rebecca, whose best friend is her own companion bot Madeline, writes Liam off as a bot-hating conspiracy theorist, just like her father was… until she learns that her father’s death might not have been due to mere happenstance.With Liam’s help, Rebecca learns of an underground organization known as The Renegades, where Quentin Cordeaux was considered a legend. While Liam attempts to stop Halpert’s challenge if he can, Rebecca tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to her father. Did he and many of his contemporaries die for something they knew? Who is the mysterious informant who calls himself John Doe, and only seems to want to drive her out of harm’s way? And if Halpert’s challenge is answered, will it usher in a brave new chapter in humanity’s history… or were Quentin Cordeaux’s dire predictions right all along?
The Young World
Chris Weitz - 2014
Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he's secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when a fellow tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure for the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip, exchanging gunfire with enemy gangs, escaping cults and militias, braving the wilds of the subway - all in order to save humankind.
State of Grace
Hilary Badger - 2014
Wren's deity Dot ensures the trees are laden with fruit and the water in the lagoon is crystal clear. Wren and her friends have everything they could possibly need right there, in Dot's Paradise.If only Wren could stop the strange, disturbing visions she's started having. Do these visions make her less worthy of Dot's love? And what does Blaze, the most beautiful and mysterious of Dot's creations, know about what's going on in Wren's head?Wren is desperate to feel Dot's love, just like everyone else. But that's harder than ever when a creation she's never met before arrives in the garden. He claims to be from outside and brings with him words and ideas that make Wren's brain hurt.Gradually Wren and Blaze uncover the truth: they're part of a clinical trial of an ominous drug called Grace. And as she deals with this disturbing knowledge, Wren confronts a horrific secret from her past. Now she must decide whether to return to the comforting delusion of faith or fight for the right to face the very ugly truth. - See more at: http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/books/hi...
Gilded Cage
Vic James - 2016
If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them. This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit. Have a quick ten years. . . .
Unremembered
Jessica Brody - 2013
. . is remembering it.When Freedom Airlines flight 121 went down over the Pacific Ocean, no one ever expected to find survivors. Which is why the sixteen-year-old girl discovered floating among the wreckage - alive - is making headlines across the globe.Even more strange is that her body is miraculously unharmed and she has no memories of boarding the plane. She has no memories of her life before the crash. She has no memories period. No one knows how she survived. No one knows why she wasn’t on the passenger manifest. And no one can explain why her DNA and fingerprints can’t be found in a single database in the world.Crippled by a world she doesn’t know, plagued by abilities she doesn’t understand, and haunted by a looming threat she can’t remember, Seraphina struggles to piece together her forgotten past and discover who she really is. But with every clue only comes more questions. And she’s running out of time to answer them.Her only hope is a strangely alluring boy who claims to know her from before the crash. Who claims they were in love. But can she really trust him? And will he be able to protect her from the people who have been making her forget?From popular young adult author Jessica Brody comes a compelling and suspenseful new sci-fi series, set in a world where science knows no boundaries, memories are manipulated, and true love can never be forgotten.
Curio
Evangeline Denmark - 2016
But she has always followed the rules, taking the potion the Chemists ration out that helps the town’s people survive. A potion that Grey suspects she—like her grandfather and father—may not actually need.By working at her grandfather’s repair shop, sorting the small gears and dusting the curio cabinet inside, Grey has tried to stay unnoticed—or as unnoticed as a tall, strong girl can in a town of diminutive, underdeveloped citizens. Then her best friend, Whit, is caught by the Chemists’ enforcers after trying to protect Grey one night, and after seeing the extent of his punishment, suddenly taking risks seems the only decision she can make.But with the risk comes the reality that the Chemists know her family’s secret, and the Chemists soon decide to use her for their own purposes. Panicked, Grey retreats to the only safe place she knows—her grandfather’s shop. There, however, a larger secret confronts her when her touch unlocks the old curio cabinet in the corner and reveals a world where porcelain and clockwork people are real. There, she could find the key that may save Whit’s life and also end the Chemists’ dark rule forever.
Disowned
Sarah Addison-Fox - 2017
After a near fatal plunge over a cliff, she washes ashore to find a family willing to nurse her back to health.Celeste recovers, slowly coming to trust the family, and despite his fierce appearance, even the terrifying ex-knight who speaks only with strange hand signs.Her tenuous peace is shattered when the eldest son, a soldier, sworn to return illegal slaves to their owners, arrives injured and furious with his family for harbouring her. Corporal Mick Haynes must choose where his loyalties lie—with the life as a dutiful soldier who always has a plan and plays by the rules, or protecting the girl he never expected to fall for and risk it all?With war on the horizon, and bounty hunters closing in on Celeste’s location, time is running out…for them both.