My First Signed Book

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

I bought this book because the author came to my school library a couple of weeks ago. Admittedly, when I saw it was dystopian, my first thought was "Ugh, another one?" because there are so many dystopian novels out there right now. In fact, I probably never would have read this had the author not come to my school, if you want the truth. So, I met the author, and she signed my book. She is totally cool, and for someone so young, I was and am totally blown away by her writing. I am so glad I gave this book a chance. I will be buying the "prequel" novella and the sequel to this, and I have put it on my list of lit circle books for my classroom.

Told from the perspectives of Meadow and Zephyr. Meadow lives on a houseboat with her father, older brother, and younger sister. Her mother was killed sometime before. Zephyr is a ward, which more or less means he grew up an orphan. They live in Florida, in what today is the Everglades. People are given rations based on their job for the society. What makes this society interesting is that when it gets dark every evening, hundreds of people are killed, and no one knows why. Meadow has been trained all her life to survive by her father. Zephyr's job is to pick up all the dead bodies.

Meadow and Zephyr meet, and find that they need to find out the mystery of the killings. What will it cost them to know the truth? How can they stop it?

I don't want to give too much away. Just trust me, you want to read this book.