Review: Behind The Gates (Tomorrow Girls #1) by Eva Gray

  In a terrifying future world, 

four girls must depend on 

each other if they want to survive.

Louisa is nervous about being sent away to a boarding school -- but she’s excited, too. And she has her best friend, Maddie, to keep her company. The girls have to pretend to be twin sisters, which Louisa thinks just adds to the adventure!
Country Manor School isn’t all excitement, though. Louisa isn’t sure how she feels about her new roommates: athletic but snobby Rosie and everything’s-a-conspiracy Evelyn. Even Maddie seems different away from home, quiet and worried all the time.
Still, Louisa loves CMS -- the survival skills classes, the fresh air. She doesn’t even miss not having a TV, or the internet, or any contact with home. It’s for their own safety, after all.
Or is it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Review
This was a quick read with a mysterious plot. The dystopian theme is appropriate for younger readers because it focuses more on the suspense surrounding the school rather than gore, or many details about the outside world. At first the rules seem a bit odd but continue to get more strange as time goes by. They don't know the actual location of the school, have no contact with the outside world and are taking classes in archery and survival skills. The idea of a conspiracy theory begins to feel possible.

The characters were interesting and complimented each other well. Their different personalities created tension in the beginning that they had to overcome in order to work together for a common goal. What makes them unique is what makes them such a good team. And with the twist at the end of this first book it appears they are going to really need each other to survive. This is a great start to the series and very age appropriate. I'll be reading more!

The rest of the series: 
Run For Cover (Tomorrow Girls #2) 7/1/11 
With The Enemy (Tomorrow Girls #3) 9/1/11 
Set Me Free (Tomorrow Girls #4)11/1/11

Thank you to Scholastic for an ARC to review.

Publisher: Scholastic
Release date: 5/11
Pages: 224
Price/format: $6.99/paperback original
Type: children (ages 10 and up)