Don’t stand out. Blend in. Remain invisible. Those are the rules I lived by—the rules I thought would keep me alive.

I was wrong.

Wynter Reeves is a law-abiding citizen of the State, a willing conformist whose daily life is haunted by terrorism and oppression. With the constant threat of death hanging over her like a shadow, she forces herself to live by a strict set of rules, all in the hope of ensuring she is never noticed. However, on her twenty-first birthday, as she prepares to take the placement exam that will determine her future within society, she begins to show symptoms of a rare and debilitating illness—ultimately attracting the attention of the State. Taken into the custody of the feared research facility known as the DSD, her worst nightmare becomes reality.

Ripped away from the life she knew, Wynter is forced to become the test subject of the mysterious Dr. Richter. Through him, she learns the true and terrifying nature of her condition: a disease called Ultraxenopia.

Goodreads

A fascinating dystopian read! Regardless if you are a dystopian genre buff or not, you won’t be disappointeed. I don’t normally like to compare books in my reviews but I felt like this was a cross between Hunger Games and Divergent (I love them all). The world is set up so you feel like you are right there. The background for the characters is beautifully flawed. This author gives you just enough to be sure you continue to find out more about the others. Perfect!

Wynter is about to take her placement test when something happens to her. She is having hallucinations and is taken to the DSD and is told that she has a disease, Ultraxenopia. She is told that she will be safe but ends up being tortured by Dr. Richter for “the greater good”. She keeps seeing this man in her visions. She escapes and finds this man who is part of the rebellion group PHOENIX. As if her head wasn’t spinning while with the DSD, her whole world is turned upside down. Fear, confusion, disbelief, questioning of morals, and trying to figure out what is right and what is wrong….This story will have you all over the board and trying to figure out exactly what is going on and what the next step is. Truly captivating!

“When I enter the corridor, I notice Jenner leaning up against the wall next to the door. He’s whistling a soft tune and his eyes are closed. He looks serene, beautiful even. At peace. I envy him, wishing more than anything that I could know what that feels like.”

“Sympathy— or I guess, in this instance, empathy— can alter a person’s mindset toward just about anything, regardless of the circumstances. Or, in our case, because of the circumstances.”

“From the day I was born, I’ve been told to suppress my emotions —that by doing so I would successfully integrate into a society that it’s taken me my whole life to realize is poisonous. Humans are meant to feel. We’re meant to love. We aren’t meant to shut any of that out, and what I never grasped before is that you can’t. One way or another, they’ll find their way to the surface. One way or another, they’ll find a way to break through. Holding back all of those feelings for twenty-one years leaves me unprepared for the onslaught that attacks me now. Each emotion tears through me, burning into my soul until there’s nothing left but a pile of ashes. From those ashes, what rises up is the new me.”

This is a new author for me and I’m hooked. There is a cliffhanger and I am anxiously awaiting the next installment. A must read!

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M. A. Phipps was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1987. In 2009, she moved to London to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Communications and Journalism. It was there that she met her husband and they now live in the Southwest where she works fulltime pursuing her true passion: fiction. She enjoys writing any genre, but the majority of her work contains some sort of fantastical element. In 2013, one of her short stories was shortlisted for publication and in the following year, she submitted her first-full length novel to an online writing competition where it was rated second overall out of over two-hundred manuscripts. In 2015, she decided to self-publish her dystopian novel, Ultraxenopia, which was acquired by a publisher five months later. At it’s re-release, it became an international bestseller.

You can find her online at maphipps.com or through her various social media accounts.

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