This novella is presented as the prequel to a dystopian series, explaining how a divided, bitter, famine-struck world emerges from modern society in America. DAWN OF DYSTOPIA focuses on two youngsters adopted from an orphanage, where increasing numbers of "throwaway kids"are sent.

Young Gerry suffers various kinds of abuse before being adopted by a New Yorker who doesn't share his Irish heritage and has money from providing healthy food. To Gerry's credit, he insists that he won't go unless his pal Anthony, an older, African-American boy, is chosen, too. Partly we see this as insecurity: he wants to bring a stable friendship with him through one more upheaval in his circumstances. But partly it is because Gerry, though he doesn't yet know it, has feelings for boys, which emerge much later in the tale as he grows to a young man and starts to understand his feelings. But by then, the world has changed; a corrupt government has been removed and replaced by a monarchy, which seems just as impotent as the government before it, and is reliant on a new religious order for authority.

DAWN OF DYSTOPIA by C.M. Barrett starts a new series to be called Dystopia in Drag, examining how people not considered to be the norm might be treated in a less tolerant future. With some strong language and adult concepts, this YA tale isn't for the nervous but will give young adult readers reason to consider the news they see and the books they read. The only drawback I can see is that after halfway, the book is more about telling than drama, as it strives to set the scene for further storylines in the series. I'm certainly interested in reading more of this series.