Dystopian, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic. Whatever you want to call it, the genre of books about life after monumental and earth-shattering disasters is continuously growing. Enclave, by Ann Aguirre, the first in a new trilogy, has become an official member of this thriving genre.
In a world where you receive your job and your name at age fifteen, Deuce’s, the main character’s, society, known as the College Enclave, is very limited. The College Enclave, or just simply referred to as the Enclave, is an underground establishment that was built to be a safe house after some great disaster that left the rest of the world destroyed and desolate. Because they are living underground with limited resources, the majority of the people in the Enclave only live to be about twenty years old. Citizens of the Enclave live without ever seeing the sun or feeling the grass or experiencing the rain. Everyone in the Enclave stays in the Enclave, underground. Only occasionally do people leave the Enclave, and even then, they are forced out because they broke one of the Enclave’s rules. All people forced out of the Enclave must live Topside, where the world once existed.
Enclave, the book, begins on Deuce’s birthday, the day she scraped off her birth name, Girl15, and received her job, known as an assignment: to be a Huntress. In the Enclave there are three different assignments from which you can be selected from: the Breeders, the Builders, or the Hunters. Newly named Deuce was ecstatic on her birthday to discover that she had earned the title of Huntress, a status she had coveted for years. Hunters leave the Enclave, but without leaving the underground, to scavenge food from traps set up in the many different underground passageways. In addition to hauling back food to the Enclave, Hunters also have the nasty job of patrolling: killing any half human/half monster creatures that try to enter the Enclave. These creatures are known as “Freaks”, and they are hungry, carnivorous beasts that have been battling the Enclave for years.
Like all Hunters, Deuce was marked with six scars on her arms and received her hunting and patrolling partner, a boy named Fade. Fade had always been a mystery in the Enclave. He was the only member of the Enclave to not be born in the Enclave. He was found a few years before he was old enough to receive an assignment, and he claimed he had survived four years in the tunnels of the underground. Strong and quiet, Fade was always detached from the other Hunters and everyone else in the Enclave. Deuce, unsure what to think of him, was wary of him being her partner. But after a turn of events, a few shocking discoveries, and a vow of trust, Deuce realizes that it is the leaders of the Enclave, who tell lies about the outside world, that are not to be trusted.
Without revealing the rest of the book, and some major spoilers, Deuce discovers from Fade more about the world outside of them and above them. Pulling key elements from other dystopian books such as The City of Ember (living underground), The Hunger Games (strong warrior female character), The Giver and Divergent (assignments/factions), and The Forest of Hands and Teeth (zombie-esque, man-eating creatures), Enclave makes for one powerful and gruesome novel. However, do not misunderstand me; Enclave does not copy these great works of fictions – it builds upon pre-established concepts and creates a world, a life, and a story of its own. Fast-paced, addicting, and gritty, Enclave is a must-read for anyone.
Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
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