*REVIEW* Incarceron

Synopsis:

Incarceron is a prison unlike any other: Its inmates live not only in cells, but also in metal forests, dilapidated cities, and unbounded wilderness. The prison has been sealed for centuries, and only one man, legend says, has ever escaped.

Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, can’t remember his childhood and believes he came from Outside Incarceron. He’s going to escape, even though most inmates don’t believe that Outside even exists. And then Finn finds a crystal key and through it, a girl named Claudia.

Claudia claims to live Outside—her father is the Warden of Incarceron and she’s doomed to an arranged marriage. If she helps Finn escape, she will need his help in return. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost far more than they know.

Because Incarceron is alive.

This book was very, very interesting. I'm not going to lie... I was very confused in the beginning and it took me awhile to get into it BECAUSE I was so confused. But once I caught on to what was going on, I was completely sucked in to the story.

Incarceron is set in the future... a future where technological progress has been stopped by a King who believes that reverting to a simpler way of life is the only way to save humanity. There's no electricity, people travel by horseback, and arranged marriages are protocol once more. But this describes "Outside"... what's "Inside" is a lot more terrifying. Inside refers to the experiment that is Incarceron. Incarceron is a living prison... that has intelligence and plans of its own.

The story follows along as we watch Claudia, the Warden's daughter, deal with life on the Outside and an arranged marriage she desperately wants to avoid. We're also introduced to Finn, a prisoner captive in Incarceron who awoke one day in the prison with no memory of who he really is. He gets snatches of what he believes are memories of Outside and decides to lead a small group and himself to freedom after getting hold of a crystal key, a key that could unlock even more than his freedom.

Claudia also manages to obtain a crystal key from the Warden and quickly realizes that it allows her to contact anyone who has the matching key in Incarceron. As she speaks to Finn and becomes entangled in his quest for freedom, she begins to wonder who he might really be... could he possibly help her achieve freedom as well?

There are quite a few twists and turns in this story... and definitely some action! Once I got into the story, I was completely captivated and didn't want to put the book down. It's such a unique concept, different than anything else I've read recently. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something completely off the beaten path. I can't wait to read the sequel, Sapphique. These books were published a couple years ago in the UK, but Sapphique doesn't come out in the US until December. Happy Reading! *XOXO*