16 year old Gaia lives in Wharfton, a small village in a dystopian future world where climate change has created shortages in basic commodities like food and water. Wharfton lies outside of a gated and seemingly secure idyll called The Enclave and every month a quota of three babies has to be delivered to Enclave families to lead better lives which, in turn, will make things better for the village. Gaia's mother is a midwife and Gaia has trained for years to follow in her mother's footsteps. Birthmarked opens with the young Gaia delivering her first child unaided.

Gaia returns from that first solo delivery to find her Mother and Father have been arrested for treason by The Enclave. Desperate to track them down and rescue them, Gaia inevitably makes it through the wall and into The Enclave but as she carries a facial scar she is an easy target in a place where disfigurement is not accepted. Despite her perilous predicament she finds help amongst a group who, like her, question the ways of the Enclave. With her parents execution imminent, and time very much against her, Gaia befriends a well-connected soldier whose hazy past hides his own issues with the Enclave, and Gaia finds out more about her parents and uncovers a great secret about the babies her mother delivered over the years. But Gaia has unwittingly become a vital pawn in the Enclave plan putting herself, and all those around her, in grave danger.

Birthmarked is the YA debut from American writer Caragh O'Brien and it starts very much as it means to go on, with a strong introduction that instantly draws the reader in to this dysfunctional society where a self-proclaimed superiority rules over the lower-ranking citizens of Wharfton. While Gaia starts out as a passive young woman, satisfied with her life and with little knowledge of the wider world, when her world turns upside-down she soon becomes much more active, forced by circumstance to grow up and face the truth of a world more cruel than she ever would have expected.

I've always found dystopian novels fascinating but also very similar, but Birthmarked has a few new angles that raise it very much above the morass of books this sci-fi sub-genre. The darkness surrounding The Enclave, and the mystery of why they take the babies, is beautifully exploited and makes Birthmarked a real page-turner, with O'Brien successfully keeping that energy throughout the book weaving a creeping Big-brother feeling throughout the story giving it an uncomfortably claustrophobic atmosphere that makes it even more absorbing.

There is so much crammed into the story it's a wonder that O'Brien manages to fit it all into the 369 pages. However, O'Brien makes every page count, her economy with words is terrific, with nothing wasted and as a result the plot never once feels like it's dragging. The language is captivating, well written and sometimes more grown up than you would expect from a young adult novel, she also includes a few things that are a bit harsh and controversial but, for me, this only adds to the originality and power of the story and opens it up for readers of all ages.

In Gaia, Caragh O'Brien has successfully introduced a strong, new heroine with human flaws and emotions. Her fight against immorality and injustice in a captivating futuristic world makes Birthmarked an original which is bound to attract many new fans and a story that makes you want to know more, so when you have finished reading Birthmarked, the follow-up, Prized, is a must.

Find out more at Caragh O'Brien's website.

Review by Fia