Author: K.A. Riley
The Cure is the first book in the book series of the same name. It is a dystopian story of deadly biochemical warfare where a disease called the Blight kills adults. Thus, whilst children before the Blight looked forward to coming out of age, in this story this means a certain death unless they can earn their spot on the Arc.
The Arc, as it turns out, consists of many levels and it is a high-tech society. Levels signal standing in the Arc’s social order, and the higher up one is, the higher their relevance and security clearance. The levels go from rats to aristocracy, and people outside of the Arc who are trying to earn their place, which is offered on their 17th birthday, are called Dregs.
This dystopian story has elements of a thriller with the book following the experience of Ashen who has a chance to rise from her Dreg life in the squalor and obtain a place in the Arc. A mysterious panel of men and women who rule the Arc decide on who is worthy after a candidate spends a year in the Arc training and proving their loyalty to the Directorate. Ashen gets a better deal initially than other Dregs because she is assigned to live with a wealthy family, formally classified as aristocracy and she spends her days training and occasionally helping the family’s younger son with reading. The family’s older son is a former classmate, from a pre-Blight time, who sent her a beautiful blue dress to help her stand out in the selection process where Dregs get assigned their place in the Arc.
Ashen is, at first, grateful for the opportunity to live a healthy and comfortable life, which all Dregs dream about. In addition to that, the allure of the Arc is earning the Cure for her and her family if she survives the first year of training and proves herself worthy. But, as she goes about training and learning about the Arc she slowly starts to learn the truth about people who portray themselves as a happy and healthy society in their videos shown to people in the squalor. She then faces a choice, be part of the disease or be part of the Cure.
The Cure reminded me of the Brazilian series 3%, which also portrays a story of squalor where people fight to go to live in a better place, run by elites, with a group of rebels trying to infiltrate an elite society, pass the training, and create a fairer society for all, which is also what transpires in the Cure…
Fans of 3% as well as The Hunger Games and Divergent will enjoy this book. I will certainly read further parts and continue reading this series.
Thank you for reading!