JLRoman

PROCREATIVE CHOICE NO LONGER EXISTS. TURNING SEVENTEEN IS FEARED. LOVING, CRYING, AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH ARE AN ACT OF BOLDNESS. DON’T. DEFY. ARID. LAW! ASSIGNMENTS! CONTROL! OBEY! PURE wants perfection… …and perfection comes with a price. Irissa Maclin is on the verge of turning seventeen. She fears what she must do if chosen for surrogacy away from her home – a small desert region outside of the capitol, Arid. Girls of her age – upon random selection – will be taken to a lab far into the Mojave Desert to help harbor Seraphim – genetically perfect embryos. Torn from her familiar life soon after

CRYING IN PUBLIC IS AN ACT OF BOLDNESS. I watch the petite girl with wild reddish-blonde curls stand at the cafeteria table, the metal spindles on the plastic chair scrape across the floor as she makes her way to the center of the room. She looks around coldly, scolding the students with her fiery eyes. They continue to blatantly gawk, causing her to scream in frustration. The fear and agony it holds rises and falls inside my chest, wrapping tightly around my lungs like a boa constrictor, squeezing the life out of me – for her cry is too familiar. Her exposure matches my own pain, only mine has been festering, withheld, and churning in