Review: 101 by Margaret Chatwin

How do you get desperately needed answers when no one is talking? Who do you trust in a place full of criminals, a place where it’s easy to mistake friends for enemies and enemies for friends? And how is it possible for one girl to seemingly vanish into thin air, especially when the place is surrounded by sixteen foot high electric fences?
When Trigg and his sister Ren are sentenced to township 101 for the crime of defending themselves, and Ren suddenly comes up missing, Trigg must ask himself these same questions.
Something else he’d like to know is, how do you survive when the flaws of the NAO’s justice system has turned a simple punishment into a game of life or death?
(Goodreads.com)
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Review 
Teenagers Trigg and his younger sister Ren were sent away from their abusive father to a facility that many people don't come back from. Although their crime was committed in self defense, the New Age Order (NAO) justice system believed in swift justice, no mercy and no distinction between crimes. They were placed in township 101 with every type of criminal possible. Unlike a traditional prison system, these inmates had been released into an abandoned village surrounded by armed guards and electric fences. There were few rules from the outside because the NAO didn't really care if they survived or not. There are several rules on the inside though and Trigg and Ren had to quickly learn them in order to survive.

I really enjoyed the characters and developed strong feelings for them throughout the story. Love them or hate them (and there were a few I really hated), their actions stirred up emotions. As each of their backgrounds slowly emerged the reader was able to discover why each of them came to be at 101. I would have liked to find out more about some of the secondary characters but I was still able to get the general idea. It was interesting to see what it took for all of them to find their strength and how far they were willing to go to survive. Trigg wasn't much of a fighter when it came to defending himself but he would fight to the death to protect Ren. And in an exciting final confrontation some did make that sacrifice.

This was my first book by Margaret Chatwin but it won't be my last. Well written and very intense, this was an action-packed, quick read. While it's of the young adult genre it has very adult, and often violent themes so I recommend this to older teens and up. 

Thank you to Goodreads - Shut Up & Read! reading group (Read It and Reap 71) for an ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Release date: 1/24/12
Publisher: Whisk Away Books
Pages: 205 (paperback)
Type: YA dystopia