THE RULE OF ONE by Ashley Saunders & Leslie Saunders – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Rule of One by Ashley Saunders, Leslie Saunders
Series: The Rule of One #1
Published by Skyscape on October 1 2018
Genres: Young adult, Dystopian
Pages: 258
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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Warning: Spoilers ahead! If you have any desire to read this book, it’s best to skip this review, as there is no way I can review this book without spoilers.

I’ll admit when The Rule of One was pitched to me, I was wary of its twin sister writing team. Books with dual authors often raise a red flag for me, unless of course the writers are already firmly established on their own (for example, Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman). And it turns out, I was right to be worried. Please forgive this uncharacteristic rant, but this book made me mad. It actually started out pretty good. I don’t love first person present tense (Jeez it’s so overdone, people!) but I thought the writing was good and I was immediately sucked into the story. But my enthusiasm waned the further into the book I got, and the more world-building the authors introduced, the more confused I became.

But first, a short story recap. Mira and Ava Goodwin are twin 18-year-old sisters, but they live in a society where the government has firmly established the Rule of One: only one child is allowed to be born into each family. Everyone in the country has a microchip implanted in their wrist, which proves your identity. They twins’ father just happens to be the Director of the Texas Family Planning Division, ironically tasked with enforcing the Rule of One and bringing anyone who breaks the rule to justice. The girls have spent their entire lives living a lie. Both girls are “Ava,” the sister with the microchip, the “real” sister. Their father created a series of hidden tunnels and caves under their house, where one girl always hides, and Ava and Mira know that one false move could upset the fragile facade they’ve created.

But one day, a boy at Ava’s school discovers their secret and reports them to the authorities, and Ava and Mira are forced to flee. Before their father is arrested for treason, he provides the girls with supplies and instructions on how to find safe houses across the country. But everyone is looking for them, now that their secret is out, and their journey to safety is fraught with dangers.

And here come the spoilers. These are all the questions I had while reading The Rule of One, world-building elements that contradict each other or were not at all carefully thought out (sorry not sorry for any snarky attitude):

• I can’t wrap my head around the logistics of surveillance cameras everywhere and every person in the US microchipped. Who did all this? How did they round up 300 million people and make sure they are all microchipped? Also, how do they maintain the cameras, especially when there are resistance groups out in force, bashing in cameras whenever they can?
• Mira has a fake microchip, but for what purpose I don’t know. I mean why even put one in her? You can’t see it anyway, can you? Maybe I just don’t understand microchips, but it seems weird. Also, when the girls are found out, their father tells both of them they need to remove their chips. OK, Ana’s got a real one, I understand that, but why would Mira cut herself with a knife to remove a FAKE microchip??
• These people live in constant fear of . . . honestly, I’m still not sure why everyone is so scared. People walk around with their heads and faces covered at all times, because they don’t want the surveillance cameras to see them. They even carry umbrellas out in the open to hide themselves from being spotted. There are guards everywhere, but what are they looking for? Maybe I missed something, but I’m confused by why everyone is so carefully watched and people are afraid to step out of line.
• Even more puzzling, why is everyone after Mira and Ava? It’s not like they’ve killed anyone. The entire state, maybe even the country, is now hunting them down like criminals. I just didn’t see what was so bad that they had to expend so many resources, time and money to find a pair of illegal twins.
• I get the feeling that there is a big divide between rich people and poor people, yet everyone seems to have access to all manner of futuristic devices, including 3D video games, 24/7 internet and some kind of projection device that allows you to project a 3D news feed in midair.
• The girls are accosted by “bandits” on the road, who steal their packs and also try to rape them. It’s the first and only time the authors talk about these bandits, although they made it sound like bandits are one of the dangers you face outside of cities, and I feel like the attempted rape scene was simply thrown in for shock value, since it had absolutely no reason to be in the story.
• The secret code to getting into the safe houses is a phrase from Walt Whitman. The girls are given this phrase on a piece of paper but never told what it’s for. It’s pure chance that they not only remember the phrase but say it at the right time in order to gain access into the houses.
• The contact lenses!! Ugh, the girls finally, after a long time, decide to change their appearance, cut and dye their hair and guess what? There are colored contact lenses available in order to hide their real eye color. Keep in mind these girls are on the run, sleeping rough and walking miles a day with little food or water. Having worn contacts for many years, I couldn’t understand how that would be practical, having to take them out at night to store them and clean them every day, on the off-chance that they would deter a government official from discovering who they really are!
• Ava is discovered by a Scent Hunter on the road, a robotic hummingbird that can track people by their scent. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why she didn’t just grab and destroy it. At one point it hovers directly in front of her face, but her reaction is. . . to run!
• The girls finally make it to the Canadian border, where they miraculously find a hole in the wall (yes, there is an actual WALL dividing the U.S. and Canada). Once over the border, they discover a marvelous country full of all the freedoms they have been denied all their lives: families walking down the street with three children! Cars that drive themselves! No microchips! I want to know why more people aren’t trying to get into Canada!

These may seem like petty complaints, but each one drew me out of the story and made me stop and puzzle out the meaning of it, which is probably not what the authors were aiming for. The entirety of the world-building is a mash-up of probably every sci-fi/dystopian idea the authors have ever read about or seen in a movie, thrown together in a wild attempt at creating a unique futuristic world. As far as I could tell, there was not much thought put into the world-building at all. A bunch of good ideas that don’t work together does not make a successful story, unfortunately.

It’s too bad because there are glimmers of a very good story here. I enjoyed the relationship between Ava and Mira, who are willing to do almost anything for each other, and I loved the idea of an underground resistance group. There is one theme that I loved that deals with the black-eyed Susan flowers that the girls grow in their garden (which now that I think about it, would have made a better symbol to put on the book cover). But nothing is fully developed, and I was simply left shaking my head in confusion and disbelief at each new element that was introduced. This is the first book in a duology, but it’s unlikely I’ll stick around to see how the story ends.