Review: The Forever Contract by Avery Sawyer

Title: The Forever Contract
Author: Avery Sawyer
Published: August 1st 2012
Source: Copy given by author for honest review
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Buy: Amazon
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

In the very near future, the country is plunged into drought and unrest. Scare resources and constant heat are making life completely miserable. Casey doesn't think she can stand slugging back another gel pack or working one more shift at the wells. Fortunately, there's a solution: anyone over the age of seventeen can sign the Forever Contract and enter a utopian paradise. While people's minds take a permanent vacation, their bodies get warehoused and hooked up to a complex array of sensors and feeding tubes. As Casey's brother says, "You upload your consciousness to the system and you're free to live as long as you want, however you want. No more pain, no more heat, no more awful dust, no more work. Just pure thought. It's what our species has always been meant for. Suffering is for philosophers. Not for me."

Casey's ready to sign--a permanent vacation is just what she needs. There's only one problem: her boyfriend James doesn't trust it.

Told from his and her perspectives, The Forever Contract is a 17,000 word (60 page) novella suitable for readers in grade 8 and above.

Would you sign the contract?

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

When I first got the inside scoop on this dystopian novella, I knew I wanted to read it. I have been anxious to read a number of dystopians as of late and this one definitely fit the bill. The synopsis is just an idea of what the world is like, but there is so much more to it that Casey and James and their families face.

Signing the Forever Contract means losing out on physically being with your loved ones who choose to remain. They say it is better to live in the fantasy than suffer the pain of the physical body having to work and be thirsty all the time. Casey’s brother just signed on and he seems to be doing just fine on the other side. Her boyfriend James, however, doesn’t trust it. And he has a reason why. All he needs to do is convince Casey of this before she signs the contract and he loses her forever.

The Forever Contract is an intriguing concept and a tantalizing story. The more you learn about what it means to sign the contract, the more chilling it becomes. My only complaint, and honestly it’s barely a complaint, is that it was too short. It is a novella, so that is the point, but I couldn’t help but want to know more, to see more. Avery Sawyer brought us an interesting, albeit terrifying, new world. Once the story is over, you can’t help but hope for it to continue. And I sure hope it does because I certainly want more!

My Rating:

Very Good: Stay up late