"Incubation" by Laura DiSilverio

Today’s book, “Incubation,” was a post-apocalyptic young adult novel told from the point of view of a young woman being raised in a government facility. Most of the Earth’s population has died off after several waves of a deadly flu pandemic have passed through society. Now most children are raised in an inkubation dome where they are educated, grow crops, and train for future occupations. They are referred to as “apprentice citizens” until they come of age and have either served as soldiers for 6 years or volunteered as a surrogate to help repopulate the planet.

Everly has a promising future as a biochemist and is working on a way to reduce the number of locusts that endanger the planet by eating the limited crops that are able to be grown. The locust swarms have thus far proven resistant to everything scientists have tried, but Everly has some theories and ideas that she is working on that seem promising.

One day she discovers that her closest friend, Halla, is planning on running away as she has been hiding the fact that she is pregnant. The father of her baby was another resident of the cube who had been sent to work as a soldier before learning that she was pregnant. Halla plans on running away because she realizes that her baby will be taken from her and given to another family to raise. There are not enough babies currently being born and far too many people who desperately want children.

Halla does not have a permit to have a child, and with the father having just started his 6 years of military service, her only hope of keeping her child is to run away. She knows this will make her a wanted fugitive with her only hope being to find the resistance, having them help her assume a new identity, and relocating to a distant province. She believes that her baby’s father will want to run away with her to raise their child together, but first she must escape and find her way to Atlanta before her pregnancy is discovered.

Everly, Halla, and their friend Wyck flee from Inkubator 9 together in the middle of the night after having gathered what limited supplies they can to help them survive the long and very dangerous journey. Along they way they discover how unprepared they really are for life outside of the Cube, but they are determined to continue on and find their way to Atlanta in order to help Halla reunite with Louden before their child is born.

This was a very absorbing look at what might happen in a society that faces possible extinction and the steps they feel are necessary to prevent it. My only complaint is that it ends on a cliffhanger and I don’t yet have a copy of the sequel. So If I want to know if Everly and her friends can escape from the dangers they encounter and what happens next (and I definitely do), I’ll need to track down the next book in the series. Hopefully it will be as enjoyable to read as this book has been.