Hi Everyone!
I've been so lax about these Spotlights lately, but now that Vendetta is released, I have a few weeks play "catch up." So . . . today I'm introducing a book that I've had my eye on for a while, because the premise sounds awesome, and I'm always up for a good dystopian. The story? Helper12 by Jack Blaine.
SUMMARY
Helper12 works as a Baby Helper in Pre Ward, the place where babies spend their first four months of life before they’re tracked for vocations and sent to training. She does her job well, and she stays out of trouble. But one day, the Sloanes, Society members who enjoy all the privileges of their station—family unit clearance, a private dwelling, access to good food and good schools—come to “adopt” one of the Pre Ward babies.
The Director makes a deal and the Sloanes walk out with a brand new child.
They also walk out owning Helper12—the Director sells her to them, and there’s nothing she can do but go. At the Sloanes, Helper12 enters a world where people should be able to enjoy life—with high position and riches come the opportunity for individual freedom, even the chance to love—but that’s not what she finds.
The Sloanes are keeping secrets. So is their biological son, Thomas.
Helper12 has some secrets of her own; she’s drawing, which is a violation, since Baby Helpers aren’t tracked for Art. And she’s growing to love the child she was bought to care for—at the same time that Ms. Sloane is becoming disenchanted with her impulse baby buy.
When all your choices are made for you, how do you make some for yourself?
Helper12 is about to find out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jack Blaine loves to write about how wonderful and terrible and wrong and incredibly right people can be, and what happens when they act that way.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
"The society in Helper12 seems frighteningly imaginable."
"Jack Blaine has managed a coup of characterization: he successfully mines the mind of a late adolescent girl living in a totalitarian state."
"Great, fast-paced, engaging dystopian. I didn't put it down until I finished!"
"A great, fast-paced adventure full of vivid imagery, interesting characters and clever twists. This one was hard to put down!"
There's a great interview with Jack here, and you can visit him on the web or follow him on twitter (@jackblainebooks).
I *really* hope you'll check him out!
KK
