Review of Branded by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki

Review of Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki's Branded

Release Date: June 11th, 2013

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

Fifty years ago the Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society. He created the Hole where sinners are branded according to their sins and might survive a few years. At best.
Now LUST wraps around my neck like blue fingers strangling me. I’ve been accused of a crime I didn’t commit and now the Hole is my new home.

Darkness. Death. Violence. Pain.

Now every day is a fight for survival. But I won’t die. I won’t let them win.

The Hole can’t keep me. The Hole can’t break me.
I am more than my brand. I’m a fighter.
My name is Lexi Hamilton, and this is my story.

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In a future where a totalitarian regime has taken over America, run by the Commander, people are accused of sinning & branded with a color representing one of the 7 deadly sins.

Lust - Blue
Gluttony - Orange
Greed - Yellow
Sloth - Black
Wrath - Red
Envy - Green
Pride - Purple

Sinners are then thrown into a fortress called the Hole, with no laws or rules, working as nothing more than slaves for food and their lives.

When Lexi is wrongly accused of Lust, she is branded with a Blue tattoo around her neck and finds herself with a 1 way trip into the Hole, where the only way out is if you are dead. A Guard named Cole is assigned to make sure she makes it to her new job on time every day... and to make sure she stays alive.

Relationships are strictly forbidden between Guards & Sinners, but Lexi finds herself drawn to the man who keeps saving her life. With only the knowledge of who her accuser is and the memories of her life before, she has to make her way through this new world. She must fight to survive and find the answers to the questions that are burning her mind: Who is the Commander? Why was she wrongly accused?

Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki have written a beautiful story in a dystopian world like I have never seen before. Check out the first installment in the Sinners series, Branded!