{Review} THE FIRE SERMON (The Fire Sermon #1) by Francesca Haig

ISBN #: 978-1476767185

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Gallery Books

Release Date: March 10, 2015

Goodreads Summary:

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair one is an Alpha - physically perfect in every way - and the other an Omega burdened with deformity, small or large.

With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world's sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: Whenever one twin dies, so does the other. Cass is a rare Omega, one burdened with psychic foresight. While her twin, Zach, gains power on the Alpha Council, she dares to dream the most dangerous dream of all: equality. For daring to envision a world in which Alphas and Omegas live side by side as equals, both the Council and the Resistance have her in their sights.

Lupe's Review:

Wow. That was so much deeper than I thought it was going to be. The thought that twins are always born and that one literally can not live without the other seemed to be an easy peasy storyline and plot. But Haig turns it into so much more.

Cass is the Omega seer twin of ambitious Alpha Zack, whom she split from very late in life. From there, she is sent to an omega outpost to live with other omegas. Suddenly, she is taken away from there on her brothers orders many years later and forced to stay in the Keeping Rooms. This leads to many other issues revelations, not including the discovery of a place even worse than that. Cass dreams of the Island, a mythical place of Omega resistance and knows that's it's real. She wants to find it, has to find it, before the Council and her brother does. But what will happen when she does?

This was seriously epic on an epic scale I had not anticipated. I'm not sure why it took so long for me to finish it but holy smokes am I glad I did. I have the second one too, so I am ready to dive into the next part of the story with Cass and see where it leads. I was really impressed with this work. Apocalyptic fiction can be hard, especially when trying to set up the world (in this case, the Before and the After) but Haig did a masterful job of that. Really good work.

*A physical copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.