The Island (The Island #1) by Jen Minkman

Title: The Island
Series: The Island #1
Author: Jen Minkman
Publisher: Patchwork Press
Published Date: June 1st 2013
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Page Count: 138
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
‘I walk toward the sea. The endless surface of the water extends to the horizon, whichever way I look.

Our world is small. We are on our own, and we only have ourselves to depend on. We rely on the Force deep within us, as taught to us by our forefathers.

If I were to walk westward from here, I would come across a barrier – the Wall.
Behind it, there are Fools. At least, that’s what everyone says.
I have never seen one.’

Leia lives on the Island, a world in which children leave their parents to take care of themselves when they are ten years old. Across this Island runs a wall that no one has ever crossed. The Fools living behind it are not amenable to reason – they believe in illusions. That’s what The Book says, the only thing left to the Eastern Islanders by their ancestors.
But when a strange man washes ashore and Leia meets a Fool face to face, her life will never be the same. Is what she and her friends believe about the Island really true?

Or is everyone in their world, in fact, a Fool?
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 My Review:

"If you don't like someone's leadership, you have to step up and become a leader yourself. But if you can't there's nothing you can do about it."

I didn't really know what to expect going into this story. After getting this book for free, on my kindle app earlier this year I just ended up forgetting about it sadly.
 At first I just thought this was a normal dystopian type of story. After awhile of reading it, though I realized that it was very Star Wars oriented. I don't feel like this really took awhile from the story much, besides the fact that any time the character names were mentioned the star wars characters were the ones I would see first. I would like to say that this is not Star Wars fan fiction like a lot of people have said in their reviews.

Now for what the story is actually about. Leia and Colin are twins and have reached there tenth birthday. In this society once the children reach their tenth birthday they leave their parents' house and go live with all the other children in the town so that they can learn to provide for themselves.
The only problem with this though is at the moment they have a dictator of sorts Saul and his younger brother Ben who have taken over the children's home and decided to become the rulers of it. If it had been anyone else besides these two it could have worked sadly it was not and Saul and Ben made everyone else's lives hell unless they were big enough or not as smart as them and then they made you their minions who had to do the dirty work.

I'm not going to talk about all of the characters since this is a novella. But I would like to talk about Leia and how even though she did end up a liking a guy she didn't let that become her main focus. Instead, she turned into this really strong young lady who took control of situations and did what needed to be done to save her community.
I would recommend this book if you're looking for a short read with a strong female character.