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Prime
PRIME is set in a flooded world where global warming and other natural disasters have forever shifted the balance in society. It is up to a reluctant heroine to help right it. Lia Meloy is learning to swim, even though it’s outlawed for her kind. Lia is a Homesteader (nicknamed a “Norm”), meaning her ancestors stayed on dry land when the floods hit, but eventually had to seek help and shelter from the Aqua Primes, who had developed better biology and technology for an oceanic world.
When Lia’s family moves to Prime land, she knows she should feel lucky, but life amongst the privileged set isn't easy, especially at Berkmont High, where the students are constantly reminded that one wrong move could get them deported. Lia seems to be making wrong moves all the time. Training with her father to swim, for instance. Or falling for Trey Schaeffer, the son of the Property owner, whose sister Molly despises everything Norm.
But things are not always as they seem on the outside. When Lia’s father passes away, Lia discovers he was part of something bigger, something mysterious, and that there is much more at stake than she previously thought. Closely guarding her father’s greatest secret, Lia will have to reevaluate her worldview and make tough choices to keep her family, friends, and all of her people safe.
When Lia’s family moves to Prime land, she knows she should feel lucky, but life amongst the privileged set isn't easy, especially at Berkmont High, where the students are constantly reminded that one wrong move could get them deported. Lia seems to be making wrong moves all the time. Training with her father to swim, for instance. Or falling for Trey Schaeffer, the son of the Property owner, whose sister Molly despises everything Norm.
But things are not always as they seem on the outside. When Lia’s father passes away, Lia discovers he was part of something bigger, something mysterious, and that there is much more at stake than she previously thought. Closely guarding her father’s greatest secret, Lia will have to reevaluate her worldview and make tough choices to keep her family, friends, and all of her people safe.
319 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 17, 2012
5 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Barksdale Inclán
51 books462 followersJessica Barksdale Inclán's sixteenth novel, What the Moon Did, and her first short story collection, Trick of the Porch Light, were published in 2023. Her novels include Her Daughter’s Eyes, The Play's the Thing, and The Burning Hour.
A Pushcart Prize and Best-of-the-Net nominee, her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in or are forthcoming in the The Sun, Salt Hill Journal, Tahoma Review, and So to Speak. Her work has been recognized and honored by The Sewanee Review, The Wigleaf, The North American Review, and The Ocotillo Review
She taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California and continues to teach novel writing online for UCLA Extension and in the online MFA program for Southern New Hampshire University.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband.
For more information, go to: http://www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
A Pushcart Prize and Best-of-the-Net nominee, her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in or are forthcoming in the The Sun, Salt Hill Journal, Tahoma Review, and So to Speak. Her work has been recognized and honored by The Sewanee Review, The Wigleaf, The North American Review, and The Ocotillo Review
She taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California and continues to teach novel writing online for UCLA Extension and in the online MFA program for Southern New Hampshire University.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband.
For more information, go to: http://www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 10, 2018
Prime takes us to a world covered in water. A future place where the ice caps are melting and the human race has been forced onto the high ground that’s left, or living in squalor in water-filled areas. It’s not such a stretch, if you believe in climate change. This YA novel is profound in the ways it shows our world divided - the Prime who live in these dry and bountiful areas, and the Norms who are forced to populate waterways and docks to survive.
Tia and Faith are teenagers who have been blessed to move to the Properties, areas owned by Primes where they house Norms. These Norms have been allowed to move there because they win a “lottery” - maybe because they have something to offer the Primes. The girls go to school with the Prime kids, but are treated as lesser-than. This isn’t a new world where people are divided by race, but more by social stature. Also, as believed by the girls, genetics. The Primes have evolved to be able to spend lengthy time under water, swimming like dolphins. The Norms never learn to swim or survive in the water.
Tia and Faith’s father Tom believes that the world is about to experience another water event, as what is left of the ice caps melts into the sea. He secretly is teaching the girls to swim and survive under water. He delivers cautionary tales to the girls all the time about the future. Tom is a “Sci”, a scientist trying to develop a new food source for when the world is further covered in water.
This isn’t just about dystopia and the future ahead, it also is about being a teenager is a world where you don’t feel you “fit.” Tia and Faith are trying to assimilate into their new Prime world, but the Primes make it pretty tough to fit in. So the Norms hang together and the Primes hang together. Nothing new there, cliques abound in every teenage world. Still, it’s a different take on this teenage subject.
Inclan captures this teenage world well. Also the possibilities of life post-ice age. I enjoyed this tremendously. As in any dystopian novel, there is a learning curve to figure out the setting, but it was a very enjoyable trip to this water world in the US.
While this book shows a 3 star review, I would have given it 3.5, as I thought it was a great story, concept and well-written YA novel.
Tia and Faith are teenagers who have been blessed to move to the Properties, areas owned by Primes where they house Norms. These Norms have been allowed to move there because they win a “lottery” - maybe because they have something to offer the Primes. The girls go to school with the Prime kids, but are treated as lesser-than. This isn’t a new world where people are divided by race, but more by social stature. Also, as believed by the girls, genetics. The Primes have evolved to be able to spend lengthy time under water, swimming like dolphins. The Norms never learn to swim or survive in the water.
Tia and Faith’s father Tom believes that the world is about to experience another water event, as what is left of the ice caps melts into the sea. He secretly is teaching the girls to swim and survive under water. He delivers cautionary tales to the girls all the time about the future. Tom is a “Sci”, a scientist trying to develop a new food source for when the world is further covered in water.
This isn’t just about dystopia and the future ahead, it also is about being a teenager is a world where you don’t feel you “fit.” Tia and Faith are trying to assimilate into their new Prime world, but the Primes make it pretty tough to fit in. So the Norms hang together and the Primes hang together. Nothing new there, cliques abound in every teenage world. Still, it’s a different take on this teenage subject.
Inclan captures this teenage world well. Also the possibilities of life post-ice age. I enjoyed this tremendously. As in any dystopian novel, there is a learning curve to figure out the setting, but it was a very enjoyable trip to this water world in the US.
While this book shows a 3 star review, I would have given it 3.5, as I thought it was a great story, concept and well-written YA novel.
July 8, 2013
Prime is a dystopian novel. The story is set in a future in which the world as we know it has been destroyed by global warming with most of the land now covered by water. The population is divided into Prime and Norms.
Prime's are that small population that had control before the disaster. Due to the technology they had developed they lived in cities that were on higher ground and covered by a dome to protect them from the effects of the sun and extreme heat. Norms are those who would have been descendants of the middle or lower class. Most of these groups had been destroyed. Those surviving lived in horrid conditions outside of the domes with an inadequate food and water supply. Norms had all sorts of rules and regulations to follow... like they weren't allowed to swim.
Due to a new law, some Norms were taken into the domes. Lia, Faith and their parents were one of the lucky families. We learn that not all the the Primes agreed with the system. Lia's father is working with the owner of the property they live on to develop new food sources as he doesn't believe in the rules set forth by the Prime even though he is one.
The story was interesting. This genre is a huge favorite of my middle school students. I gave it 3 stars due to 1.) as situation in which a Norm was being sexually harassed by a teacher. 2) sexual activity between 2 characters that resulted in Lia thinking she was pregnant and a thought of aborting the baby.
Neither of these were necessary to the story line. To me is was a major fail in the book and won't be on the library shelves in our school.
Prime's are that small population that had control before the disaster. Due to the technology they had developed they lived in cities that were on higher ground and covered by a dome to protect them from the effects of the sun and extreme heat. Norms are those who would have been descendants of the middle or lower class. Most of these groups had been destroyed. Those surviving lived in horrid conditions outside of the domes with an inadequate food and water supply. Norms had all sorts of rules and regulations to follow... like they weren't allowed to swim.
Due to a new law, some Norms were taken into the domes. Lia, Faith and their parents were one of the lucky families. We learn that not all the the Primes agreed with the system. Lia's father is working with the owner of the property they live on to develop new food sources as he doesn't believe in the rules set forth by the Prime even though he is one.
The story was interesting. This genre is a huge favorite of my middle school students. I gave it 3 stars due to 1.) as situation in which a Norm was being sexually harassed by a teacher. 2) sexual activity between 2 characters that resulted in Lia thinking she was pregnant and a thought of aborting the baby.
Neither of these were necessary to the story line. To me is was a major fail in the book and won't be on the library shelves in our school.
May 31, 2012
Prime is a familiar story and yet it felt alien. It was a possibility of a future I hadn't considered. But Governments move on. People oppressed. You have the haves and the have not. Lia, an interesting way to spell it, is part of this haven't world. Her father plotting and striving to give his children something more.
Its a story that is interesting and a roll-coaster for my between my logic and emotion. I was warring with the character. It wasn't until I reached the end did I realize I was feeling melancholy. I realize the story was making me think about the generations after me. It's that kind of story.
I encourage that every take it for a read. I could have easily finished it in one sitting but life moves on. Even when I put it down my thoughts would drift back to them. This is the reality of the their life and I, in the present, could have been the cause. It's a sobering thought.
Its a story that is interesting and a roll-coaster for my between my logic and emotion. I was warring with the character. It wasn't until I reached the end did I realize I was feeling melancholy. I realize the story was making me think about the generations after me. It's that kind of story.
I encourage that every take it for a read. I could have easily finished it in one sitting but life moves on. Even when I put it down my thoughts would drift back to them. This is the reality of the their life and I, in the present, could have been the cause. It's a sobering thought.
Want to read
July 11, 2012I'd like to read this book but it is not available for the Nook at Bn.
December 12, 2012
I enjoyed this book very much everytime I thought I knew what was coming I was completely wrong. it's definitely a book I will recommend.
February 26, 2015
Is this our future?
Exciting tale of a world divided between primes and norms. How do we recover a planet disastrously flooded by global warming? Maybe the youth can get us there.
Exciting tale of a world divided between primes and norms. How do we recover a planet disastrously flooded by global warming? Maybe the youth can get us there.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews