CAPTIVE

This second installment in the Blackcoat Rebellion series dives further into the book’s dystopia, rounding out the imaginative future America outlined in Pawn (2013).

Kitty Doe, born, she believes, an Extra into a nation that rigidly ranks its citizens into lifelong roles, has taken the place of Lila, the daughter of the autocratic prime minister of the United States, surgically Masked to look like her. Kitty runs afoul of the powers that be in her new palatial home and finds herself shipped to Elsewhere, the deadly, inescapable detention area for criminals and other undesirables. In constant danger, she sleeps in an overcrowded dormitory, eats terrible food and works in a highly unpleasant job that furthers the book’s dystopian theme. Now the Blackcoats intend to launch a major attack, and they want her to use her unique position to steal codes that will allow them to unlock advanced weaponry. Doing so, however, will put Kitty in extreme danger and possibly get many others killed as well. With Kitty out of the palace, Carter’s dystopia is free to focus on the dreary and precarious lives of its victims. Character development joins worldbuilding in improvement as well, especially among the Elsewhere inmates who make difficult and deadly choices to survive, which often lead to extreme violence.

With this second installment, Carter has hit her stride.