Tomorrow Girls: Behind the Gates Review

 

Book Description:  In a terrifying future world, four girls must depend on each other if they want to survive.

Louisa is nervous about being sent away to a boarding school -- but she’s excited, too. And she has her best friend, Maddie, to keep her company. The girls have to pretend to be twin sisters, which Louisa thinks just adds to the adventure!

Country Manor School isn’t all excitement, though. Louisa isn’t sure how she feels about her new roommates: athletic but snobby Rosie and everything’s-a-conspiracy Evelyn. Even Maddie seems different away from home, quiet and worried all the time. 

Still, Louisa loves CMS -- the survival skills classes, the fresh air. She doesn’t even miss not having a TV, or the internet, or any contact with home. It’s for their own safety, after all. 

Or is it?

My Take:  This is a different take on the usual high school theme.  Four girls are sent to school in the future where the United States is at war with the Alliance.  For their own safety, they surrender all electronic devices, jewelry, and even their personal identification bracelets.  They are then trained in the fine arts of survival in the wild, archery, sharp shooting, canoeing, and occasionally English and other studies. 

It's grueling.  It's difficult.  The roommates don't always like each other and they have different personalities that grate against one another.  Rosie is the natural leader and is tough and cool.  Louisa is the first person telling the story.  She likes the school but has a few reservations.  Maddie is Louisa's pretend twin.  Maddie's parents are soldiers and have been missing from Maddie's life for long enough that Louisa's parents paid big money to change her identity to being Louisa's fraternal twin.  She hates the school is buying into Evelyn's theories.  Evelyn believes the school is not what it says it is and is into conspiracy theories and whatnot.  She's gathering evidence and taking notes.  She's gaining a small following and getting as many privileges as she can in order to infiltrate the secrecy.

Book 2 comes out in July and will be told in Rosie's voice. 

This book is appropriate for my 7th grade daughter to read.  Clean, interesting and fresh.