Noteworthy Passages: Birthmarked

Birthmarked (ARC) by Caragh M. O'Brien
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Pub. Date: March 30th, 2010
Pages: 368
Age Level: 14+

Disclaimer: Please note that this is an ARC and passages and quotes below are subject to change in the final copy.

Synopsis from GoodReads
After climate change, on the north shore of Unlake Superior, a dystopian world is divided between those who live inside the wall, and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. It’s Gaia’s job to “advance” a quota of infants from poverty into the walled Enclave, until the night one agonized mother objects, and Gaia’s parents are arrested.

Badly scarred since childhood, Gaia is a strong, resourceful loner who begins to question her society. As Gaia’s efforts to save her parents take her within the wall, she herself is arrested and imprisoned.

Fraught with difficult moral choices and rich with intricate layers of codes, BIRTHMARKED explores a colorful, cruel, eerily familiar world where one girl can make all the difference, and a real hero makes her own moral code.

Noteworthy Passages

Third Person Narrative; pg. 32-33
But she knew people were not noticing her clothes. They were staring at her face. And as she and Emily's father walked back up the aisle, to the place where Emily and Sasha were already sitting with Emily's mother, Gaia heard whispers. Muttering. She didn't have to hear individual words to know it was pity. The only thing that stung worse was the deeper message: freak.

Third Person Narrative; pg. 127
That night, Gaia ate her first full meal in days. The image of the oranges haunted her, and the memory of the sweet scent was like a mist of pure color before her nose. She craved one of those oranges so badly it was like an illness. And this made her laugh.

Mace, Yvonne, Oliver, and Gaia; pg. 219
"I don't think so. That was a sauna parlor, there, where I found you," the baker said. "They'll just think you were working the late shift."
Gaia was baffled. "A sauna parlor?"
She saw the baker and his wife hesitate.
The girl clarified in her open, childish voice. "He means it's a brothel."
The baker clapped a hand to his forehead.
"What?" the girl said. "It's a very discreet, high class brothel. Tell them Oliver."
"Real nice, Yvonne. Thanks," the teenager said blushing.
His mother looked murderous.

~~~~~~~~~~

Well everyone, those were the Noteworthy Passages for Birthmarked. There were others I would have liked to have used but I didn't want to post anything that might be spoilerish. Hope you enjoy the ones I did choose though. If you would like, you can read my review of Birthmarked HERE. :D








PLEASE NOTE: This is a feature hosted here at my blog in which I present you with selected passages or quotes that I deem Noteworthy from a book I've just reviewed. My hopes are of course, that these passages will make you want to pick the book up and read it. This feature was started and created by me in January in hopes of making my blog more unique. That being said, I would like to kindly request that you do not use this feature as it was intended to be for my blog only and is not a meme. If you see some one else using it, please know it is without my permission. Thank you.