Promised

Now the leader of the village of Sylum, Gaia decides to leave the poisoned waters with whoever of her people wish to go. She hopes to lead her people back to the Enclave and find a home there. She knows that the ruling power in the Enclave is beginning to get desperate for a deeper gene pool and she hopes her people's genetic material will be a compelling enough bargaining chip to guarantee them water and a place to live.

However, upon arriving, she is immediately arrested and it becomes clear that the Protectorate is not interested in making reasonable concessions. Instead, he's hoping to steal Gaia's ovaries to found his newest pet project: The Baby Factory. In order to provide children to the wealthy elite, he's developing a paid show more surrogacy program. They have discovered that Gaia carries the anti-hemophilia gene as well as having O- blood which will make her children extremely valuable.

Meanwhile, Leon is meeting up with his local contacts and has plans to threaten the Protectorate with bombs in order to make sure that he keeps his promises. Gaia does not want to lead her people into a bloody war, but it's beginning to look like she won't be given a choice in the matter. Can she ensure a future for her people while keeping the ones she loves safe?

Whoo boy, this book truly makes no sense from beginning to end. At no point, in the entire book, does Gaia, the now seventeen year old leader of an entire civilization, have a plan. The book starts with them simply arriving at the Enclave. They worked hard to develop a plan to make in through the wilderness to this point, however, I guess they forgot to figure out what they would do once they arrived? Gaia seems to think she'll just walk up to the Protectorate and broker safe passage for her people. Which is, naturally, a really stupid and ludicrously unlikely idea.

It's really not clear why she would imagine this non-plan to work. Afterall, a bare year ago she was forced to flee into the wilderness because the Protectorate had unjustly imprisoned and killed her parents, imprisoned her, and tortured her boyfriend. Now she's showing up on his doorstep with a band of mutated burdens to his already struggling society and she expects to be welcomed or at least tolerated.

Even though she has no reason to trust the Protectorate, and lots of reasons not to, and even though he literally sends a band of soldiers to arrest her for treason, Gaia calmly walks into the walled city with all the survival instincts of a confused baby bird. She brings two guards (an already laughably meager amount of protection) but they are simply trapped outside the walls and she is taken to jail. Which is what they said they were going to do, afterall. But Gaia, for unknown reasons, chose to believe that when they said she was being arrest for treason that they merely just wanted to take her to the Protectorate so she could begin negotiating.

As she is being bodily carried to the torture cells, she calls out for people to help her. She tells the guards nonsensical things like, "You can't do this to me!" and "Stop! Don't touch me!" She also demands to be taken to the Protectorate, a request which is ignored, because obviously. And also obviously, who do you think ordered you to be arrested for treason in the first place?

Anyway, none of this matters because Leon has managed to take the Protectorate's daughter as a hostage and threatens to kill her unless they release Gaia. Which they do, because for some reason, the Protectorate cares about what happens to his daughter? Which is bizarre because he doesn't seem to care about what happens to anyone? And also, it's very obvious that Leon won't kill his sister. But whatever.

While Gaia was captured she is introduced to the women who are in the Baby Factory and gets all up on her high horse about how could any woman agree to give up their child. That's just completely wrong, apparently. Nevermind that surrogacy is a real and beautiful thing that people agree to do for all sorts of reasons. It's truly bizarre to watch Gaia, canonical baby stealer, get extremely self-righteous about the sanctity of motherhood. Especially, when she literally runs a society where women were compelled to have ten babies and if they refused were exiled from society. At least here women can choose to enter into motherhood and get some sort of recompense for the health risks they're taking.

She even goes on to lecture a former friend for agreeing to be a part of this breeding scheme, even though her friend's two children are being held as collateral. All these women are just trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world and dim little Gaia is giving them morality lessons like she got bounced off the church bus on her head.

After returning to her people, Leon decides that he will just ignore her authority as Matriarch (as he has been doing constantly the whole book) and set out to enact his plan of bombing the one final vestige of civilization in hopes that their terrorism will force the local dictator to cave to their demands. Listen, it's not a great plan, but at least he has a plan, I guess?

Anyway, he disappears into the city through the ever convenient tunnels that lead all over the place and are never guarded. It's pretty wild that the Protectorate has done nothing to deal with those tunnels after both Gaia and his son used them to escape a year ago. Oh well. Gaia decides that the most responsible thing to do as a grown up leader of a whole community is to run away from her guards and risk her life trying to navigate the tunnels to find her boyfriend. Once again, she has no plan. Not even what she will say if she finds him. She's mad that he went off to do the terrorism thing without her, but also, she doesn't have a plan for changing his mind or stopping him.

She literally wanders the tunnels for a couple days and can't find him. She does find one of the girls from the Baby Factory who is just ... living in the tunnels for some reason? She ran away because she wants to keep her baby and some random person she met in the kitchens is helping her for some reason. Even though she has a bracelet that tells her keepers where she is at all times, she's managed to avoid notice and is planning to ... what? Poop out a baby in the tunnels and then raise a baby by herself in the tunnels? This girl is basically Gaia's soulmate but Gaia once again gets to be self-righteous about how this silly girl doesn't have a plan. Excuse me, Gaia? But how exactly did you end up in this tunnel yourself? Wasn't it by flailing around chaotically without a plan of any sort? Gaia has no ability to self-reflect.

So after doing nothing of value for about a day, Gaia just wanders back out of the tunnels and back out of the Enclave. It's apparently still really easy to get around in this military city state that's on high alert without being noticed. When she gets back to her people they quickly learn that Leon has been captured and the Protectorate wants her to come to a party. It's obviously a trap. And they all know it. But they still decide to go without any plan at all.

Once again, Gaia brings two guards with her as if they will be of any use against an entire city. Her guards are drugged at the party and she is taken to see Leon and told that the government wants her ovaries. If she submits herself to extremely experimental surgery they'll let Leon go and also maybe agree to give her people water. She refuses because she doesn't trust the Protectorate to keep his word. Which is very fair, but also ignores the fact that they can just take her ovaries any time they want because she's currently in custody.

Leon wakes up from a drug induced coma and tells her that a bomb he set is about to go off and they can use it as a cover to escape. Wow, that's convenient! So that's what they do. Again, it's incredibly easy to come and go in this walled city even when you are being actively sought by the military police.

Now that they're both back with their people, they feel pretty good. Except that the Protectorate immediately turns off their water supply. So, they decide it's time to start a war or whatever. They keep setting off bombs and decide to blow up the wall around the Enclave. Which, okay. That's a plan, I guess. Again, not a very good one, and it's not clear at all why Gaia is now okay with violence even though she's been against it from the beginning. I guess she figured out that the book is almost over so maybe something should happen.

So they blow up the wall. It's pretty great how easy it is to get the materials needed for huge bombs in this city. They were really just asking for this level of terrorism, honestly. But then Gaia has this bright idea that the immigrants from Sylum should just walk into the city without weapons. You know, peacefully, as a show of good faith so that maybe they won't be killed on sight. Once again, this is the opposite of a plan, and really really dumb. Like, astonishingly stupid. You just blew up a city, Gaia. It doesn't matter if you aren't holding a loaded gun, or whatever, you are not coming in peace!

Naturally, they are all instantly arrested. Then tortured. Then sentenced to execution. Because. What else did you think was going to happen you rabbit-brained nitwit? Also, they cut Gaia open and steal her ovaries which honestly they should have done immediately. What was stopping them?

Gaia wakes up from her surgery and is told that Leon is about to be executed. So she hops out of bed as limber as anything and runs to the gallows to break out her patented method of screaming, "Stop this! It's wrong!" Once again, no plan anywhere at anytime. However, some of the people gathered to witness the execution hear her powerful arguments of, "This isn't fair!" and "Why are you all so mean?" and realize that it's time to have a rebellion already.

So they do. Gaia doesn't participate as she's too busy staring at Leon who is dying from being shot. I haven't had much time in this review to cover the romance part of this book, but it's still tepid and bloodless. Leon and Gaia are in love. You know that because you are told that over and over again. They don't really seem to get along much otherwise. They disagree constantly and are perpetually sniping at one another. Also, Leon is super pissy that Gaia made him wait a whole year before agreeing to marry him. Afterall, if they don't get married before she's eighteen, what's the point?

Peter and Will are still around too and Peter is extremely butthurt the whole time. He's always complaining about how Gaia ruined his life and then didn't even want to marry him. He also complains that he's being kept around as a "backup" in case Leon dies or something which is gross. But also, Gaia is weirdly into the whole thing. She likes that Peter is obsessed with her and gets jealous when she sees him flirting with a different girl. Personally, it just seems like she's a teenager and not ready to make life-long commitments to one guy she's known for about 1.5 years. But hey, what do I know.

As Leon lays, possibly dying, the first thing he says is how now Gaia's going to end up with Peter. Which... GROSS. And also, that's what you want your last words to be, bro? Some petty shit about how Gaia doesn't love you exclusively enough? WTH? Alas, Leon doesn't die because Gaia convinces the evil doctor who stole her ovaries to rig up a blood transfusion. She's only supposed to let the transfusion run for five minutes but she forgets because she's Gaia and has the memory of a distractible goldfish. So she nearly dies too. I mean, she just had major surgery, afterall.

Anyhow, turns out that while the rebellion was happening elsewhere to other people, Peter died. Lots of other people died too, but now Peter is out of the picture so that wraps up any jealousy Leon had. So they agree to get married. But also Gaia's ovaries are gone so they can't have children together. Which, was never something Gaia seemed to want all that much but now she's very upset about it. She doesn't want to adopt. And she doesn't want to have a baby that's only related to her husband, either. She's really got some toxic ideas about parenthood and what makes a true mother. Which is bizarre because she's currently raising her baby sister.

And I guess the Enclave is being rebuilt now. All that's happening in the background. Gaia's a senator. A seventeen year old senator. Great. And the whole Enclave is just really happy that there are equal rights for everyone now. And I guess there's enough water. Once again, it's never discussed how there are enough resources for everyone. No one talks about farming or produce or anything. It seems like that would be an issue of concern? Oh well, I guess not. All done. Nothing to see here. Stop asking questions. Gaia's getting married, kids! Hurrah! show less

I so much wanted to like this book. Birthmarked was great and then the books went progressively down hill from there. For me the world building is great, I like the story line, and am really attached to the supporting characters and their struggles. So what makes this book so bad?? The main character, Gaia Stone. She single-handedly destroyed this series for me. I liked her in Birthmarked, struggled through Prized, and then just a chapter or two into Promised she is making such stupid decisions that I just couldn't take it anymore.

I have never been so angry with a fictional character before! I just couldn't believe how naive and stupid she was acting by assuming that suddenly the Protectorate would be a warm friendly kind of guy after show more he had imprisoned her, killed her father, imprisoned her mother, and brutally beat and tortured his son. I'm sorry, but Gaia he's NOT A NICE MAN!!! Gah!!! I just wanted to scream when she walked straight into his clutches to be re-imprisoned before their camp at New Sylum has even been set up! At that point I just couldn't continue reading. I rarely stop in the middle of a book, but this one had me so angry with Gaia I decided it was bad for my health to continue it.

Another thing that irritates me about her is the way she played with the emotions of pretty much every man she has ever come into contact with. Not cool. I realize it's not popular to say this, but men have feelings too. They're human beings after all, and to manipulate those feelings so that you can feel "pretty" or "desirable" is not an admirable trait in a heroine. What was up with her putting off getting engaged to Leon?? She admitted she loved him and didn't want anyone else, she knew he loved her as well, and yet she still refused him for some unknown vague reason! If you truly love someone and feel like he's who you're supposed to be with then getting engaged is an obvious decision. I felt like it was just another way for her to hurt and manipulate Leon by toying with his emotions a little bit more. That's very immature and I feel like the Gaia I liked so much in Birthmarked wouldn't do that.

I really just can't even believe that she is now the Matriarch! Who would follow someone who clearly has no clue what they are doing and relies solely on her feelings at the given moment to make decisions? I find that highly unbelievable. Surely in all of Sylum there was someone a bit more qualified to take the lead, and if Gaia is going to be that leader then make her act like a leader!! Not a wishy-washy, self-centered, immature girl.

I think more than anything I'm disappointed. This series had such potential to be great, but sadly it fell way short. The protagonist should learn from her mistakes, grow, and develop into a better person as the story progresses. Unfortunately, Gaia becomes less likable, never seems to learn from her mistakes, and her growth is halted about the time she enters Sylum. In conclusion, 1 star rating. Thank you Gaia for ruining this series, appreciate that. show less

Ugh, this review hurts to write.

I adored Birthmarked and Prized. I loved the world O'Brien set up and the characters she introduced and the stories and romance she spun, but Promised just fell flat for me. It broke my heart. The lovely characterization, especially with Gaia and Leon, just didn't seem fully-fleshed out in this last installment. It seemed like they weren't given the same care as the first two books.

I think what bothers me the most is the plot. Nowadays, it's like every third book is a war or a major conflict that really isn't a plot at all. Things happen, but there's no real drive, it's just subplots going on to stir up drama for the sake of it, to fuel on this war that undoubtedly happens, because like I said, it's the show more third book. Heaven forbid the third book ends peacefully or in away that doesn't involve massive bloodshed or violence or bombs or guns or . . ., etc. Maybe this is just my opinion, but I'm so sick of it. I thought there was real potential for a beautiful, hopeful ending here, but nope, things just had to get worse, and I never really understood why. Why did things just have to fail? Every idea--BAM. A failure. Everything had to go wrong. I can't really think of an idea Gaia had that actually went right in this book! That's so frustrating for a reader to have to deal with!

I don't know. The love square, what was left of it, was pretty darn unbearable here, especially because I thought it'd been over and done with. It just left a day-old taste in my mouth. I really wanted to love this, and I was disappointed. show less

I enjoyed the first 2 books in The Birthmark trilogy and was excited to read the third. I was glad for the final resolutions of the characters, but the Gaia main character just got me riled up with her putting herself in danger again and again and again. She seemed so smart and a risk taker in the first 2 books, but her decisions in this last one, of course had to be done to further the story and were colored by love, but I felt she should have known better with experience. I just wanted to scream at her, "No, no, no please don't do that"! :-)

This was an amazing ending to a wonderful trilogy. It was hard to put the book down once I started. I thought I knew what would happen, but I was fooled, so of course I had to continue. The ending itself had my emotions on a rollercoaster. When I was done I felt both sad and happy with how it ended, which was different for me because I don't think a book has ever left me feeling that way.

This was the final book in the Birthmarked series. It was a decent conclusion to the series. There aren't a lot of surprises here, things play out pretty much how you would expect them to.

Gaia is now the leader of her people. Her and Leon are leading the people of Sylum back to the Enclave in an effort to persuade the Protectorate to grant Gaia’s people protection from the wasteland.

Gaia is still kind of a blah character for me. She just seems a bit too weak to be leading these people. That really comes across in this series as she looses control of Leon’s actions...which pretty much reinforces her weak leadership. I understand that Gaia always wants peace over violence. It just seems short-sighted of her to allow the death of many show more rather than command the death of a few to save many. She does grow some throughout the story, but she never really grew on me as a character.

Leon is more interesting than Gaia but just as pig-headed in his own way. He constantly undermines Gaia’s leadership and him and Gaia constantly lie to each other. I have never been impressed with their relationship.

The characters surrounding Gaia are much more intriguing than she is, but we never get much of a chance to know them.

As you might be able to tell I just had a lot of trouble caring about this characters; this isn’t new for me...I didn’t like them much in the previous two books either. So if you thought the first two books were mediocre this is more of the same. If you loved the first two books you should be pleased with this book as well.

This book is mostly politics and intrigue. Gaia has to cut a deal with the Protectorate and then make sure he follows up on his part of the bargain. Some of the ideas in this book are fascinating; the idea of a genetic anomaly taking out humanity is an interesting one and I did enjoy how it was explored in this series. That’s pretty much what keep me reading this series.

The book is decently written and well paced. It is also completely predictable. I could have told you everything that was going to happen in this book before I read it; I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t any surprising twists and turns.

Overall this is a solid dystopian read, but not my personal favorite. The idea behind the story was intriguing, but I struggled with the way Gaia and Leon constantly were unsupportive of each other and made bad decisions for their people. The story was very predictable as well. If you have enjoyed the first two books in the series I think you will enjoy this one. If not, well this is pretty much more of the same. I personally would recommend Veronica Roth’s Divergent series or Ally Condie’s Matched series over this series. show less

That was...an intense book.
I waited patiently for 2 months until I could get my copy and read it in less than 3 hours. And afterward, I just thought 'WOW'.
That ending was painful. And completely perfect. I hated it. I loved it.
Gah!
I can't say too much without giving away spoilers. Your heart will break and you will cry, but there's also an undertone of happiness and hope.
Just read the book.