Craigluy is a world divided according to class. Lower, middle and upper classes are separated and live totally different lives. In Territory L, Emma Whisperer is the last child to turn 18. The last baby to grow up. Lower class citizens have been deemed irresponsible and are no longer allowed to have children. Anyone who comes up pregnant is arrested, forced to bear the child and watch as the baby is taken away to be killed. It is a brutal world to live in. Those in Territory M and Territory U have other options, but President Esther controls all aspects of society no matter which class. Emma Whisperer....the last child....wants to change everything. She wants everyone to live together again...for people to be free.

The Extinction of all Children series is a trilogy. Book one introduces Emma and centers around Territory L. The storyline moves from L to the middle class area and on to the upperclass walled-in territory in the final book. I enjoyed how the characters developed throughout this series. Emma knows in the first book that she wants to see President Esther's policies destroyed...to remove the segregation from the people of Craigluy. Over the 3 books, Emma and the followers/supporters she gathers go from dreaming of freedom to actually fighting to try and make it happen. President Esther is a worthy, tricky adversary. She is wiley and wise. I found myself not able to totally hate her. Down at her very core, there is some good....at one point she actually had the best interests of the people at heart. But it got twisted inside her mind. Absolute power really does corrupt.

All in all this series is a very enjoyable read. I found the premise a bit unrealistic, but the story for me was enjoyable enough to override my sense of realism. The charcters are nicely developed over the 3 parts of the story. There is a lot of action, and the story moves along at a nice pace. There is plenty of suspense and some nice twists in the tale.

Enjoyable read! Nothing inappropriate for older teenagers, but be aware that there is discussion of abuse, death, imprisonment, murder, infanticide, torture, violence and other topics that may require a trigger warning for some students/adults reading this series.

**I voluntarily read review copies of the three books in this series by L. J. Epps via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.** ( )

I seriously struggled with the writing in this book. Too many times the wording made so little sense it kept me from following what was going on in the story. For example in chapter 6: why are you shooting a rat in the ac duct work if you are trying to sneak away? Why would you yell to "hurry up" if your trying to escape quietly out of the building? Chapter 7: "We end up at a set of steps. There are three large steps that we walk up. " It just comes off as someone trying to reach a word count or something.
I really like the plot of the story, the idea behind the divisions in classes and Whisper trying to break down the walls but there are so many distracting things about this story I just found myself very frustrated most of the time. I would not recommend this book. ( )