Amity Middle School Orange Book Blog

Read reviews by an avid young adult book enthusiast.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

The Park Service by Ryan Winfield


How would you feel if at the age of 15 you discover that everything you have been led to believe is a lie?

Fifteen-year-old Aubrey VanHouten has only known life with his father in Level 3 of the Holocene II. Holocene II is a society built underground in what is presently North America nine hundred years in the future.
All fifteen year olds in Holocene II take a test to determine where they will work and live as they mature to adults. The highest level is Level 1 and the lowest is Level 6. The miners reside in Level 6. No one from Level 3 has ever been to Level 1. Retirement occurs in this society at age 35 when you are transported to Eden.

The eight-hour long computer-generated test ends abruptly for Aubrey when he makes a random guess on the question regarding what should be done if plague strikes. Aubrey’s computer screen shuts down and the message, “You will report to Level 1” is revealed. Everyone in Level 3 celebrates Audrey’s good fortune!
Parting from the only home he has known underground is bittersweet for Aubrey and his father. But since Aubrey’s dad is soon turning 35 and destined to go to Eden anyway, they are accepting of this fate.

When the magnetically powered train taking Aubrey to Level 1 crashes due to an avalanche of rock debris, Aubrey realizes that the mountain scenes he has been seeing outside the train’s window are not a virtually created movie. Instead, they are the surface of the earth! Everyone residing in Holocene II has been told that an ice sheet covers the surface.
Aubrey is filled with questions: What in the world happened? Why have we been lied to? Who lives up here? How will I survive?

I loved the first book in The Park Service trilogy! Fans of The Hunger Games and the Divergent series will be able to escape to another dystopian world!

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