Breeder by Ashley Quigley

Ariet lives in a world where your health is everything. You have daily scans, weekly medicals skipping any of them mean that you will face dire consequences. On her way to her last medical before she's of mating age, she gets, well kidnapped. She has a unique gene mutation and because of that she has been selected for the breeding program. Meaning she has even less freedom then before. Her mate has been chosen for her, and any children who look like they won't express the gene will be terminated. Also if she and Mason (her mate) fail to produce a viable offspring they will be terminated. Hows that for pressure?


This was a book that sparked a debate between my boyfriend and I. I took the side of the one, and he took the side of the whole. Basically I took Ariet and Mason's side, and he took the side of the scientists. However after discussing it with him, I've accepted that his point of view is best in this case. In this world the human population has been decimated and given the nature of the gene it's understandable to want the gene to be expressed and developed further. But being as the book is first person you start to feel for Ariet and all that she goes through.

With all of the current advancements in technology something like this happening is actually kind of worrying. With the human genome project we already know some of the genes that are desirable, and some the very much aren't. While we haven't had a human mass extinction, the need to control population may cause us to use gene therapy for this exact reason.

The only downside that I saw was the ending. To me it seemed rush, and seeing as this is a trilogy it really didn't have to be. I will definitely look into reading the other books to see where Ariet and Mason's story takes them next.