Dark Life by Kat Falls

I was recently browsing Pinterest and found a pin to a blog with a list of 25 book series to read if you loved The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (blog post can be found here.) I absolutely loved The Hunger Games so I went through the list. Not so surprisingly I had already read all the books on the list with the exception of two. City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau and Dark Life by Kat Falls. Now, I have seen the movie adaptation of City of Ember and I really enjoyed it and I didn't want to ruin the movie by reading the book. Because it totally will for me. That left me with Dark Life by Kat Falls.

The plot of Dark Life by Kat Falls was an interesting concept. Sometime in the future the oceans rise leaving very little land above water. Instead, the Commonwealth opens up the Benthic Territories under the ocean for settlers, if you homestead for 5 years, the land becomes yours. But there are side effects that go with living under the sea. After years of eating bioluminescent the settlers start to slightly glow. And those children born in Benthic Territories are being born different as well. Parts of their brains are becoming more active and these are developing in to the Dark Powers.

Enter Ty, the first baby born under the ocean. He is now 15 and all he wants in life is to turn 18 so he can start his own homestead. He lives with his mother, father and younger sister Zoe. He is adventurous and the first of children to develop dark powers. One day he is out exploring when he finds a derelict submarine, recently sunk. He enters the submarine and discovers a mess of a ship, he also discovers Gemma, a Topsider looking for her lost brother. The only problem is that the settlement is under attack by Shade, the leader of the Outlaws. This book is about Ty and Gemma's hunt for her brother and their fight against the Outlaws to protect the Territories.

I would rate this book a 4 out of 5. It was a quick read but I really enjoyed it. It was heavier on the science fiction than other books I have read recently, but it was nice that for once the science was about inhabiting more of our planet rather than outer space.



Recommendations:
The Burn by Annie Oldham - This book is set in the future after a nuclear war. Colonies of survivors live under the ocean including Terra, the main character. Terra hates it underwater and is given the chance to escape, though at a heavy cost. She bands up with survivors living on land and it goes on from there.