Day is the Republic’s most wanted criminal. June is the Republic’s most promising student. June goes undercover on the streets of Los Angeles, determined to bring in the notorious teen after he kills her older brother Metias, an army Captain who raised her after her parents’ death. Day, attempting to steal plague medicine for his family when Metias was shot, is on the run with twelve-year-old Tess. June takes refuge with the two after a street fight, unaware that he is the boy she is looking for. By the time June figures out Day’s identity, she has a hard time reconciling his reputation with reality: Yes, he is highly skilled and wears suspicion like a charm, but he also has great compassion, no matter how much he tries to hide it. Still, she helps arrest him, and then finds everything she’s been taught to believe unraveling. Marie Lu’s swiftly paced debut novel moves back and forth between the perspectives of these two teens living in a grim future where the government and military wield oppressive control. Each is challenged to trust, and then love, while unraveling truth and fighting for their lives. (Ages 12–15)