Review: Expiration Day

Title: Expiration Day

Author: William Campbell Powell

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Published: April 22, 2014

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is set in the not too distant future where the birthrate had dropped considerably. To compensate a company called Oxted created androids for couples to lease for a period of 18 years so they could be raised as if they were real children.

The story was told in a diary format and focused a lot about the lack of children being born. It felt as if the author was trying to write a teenage retelling of Margaret Attwood's The Handmaid's Tale and I am sorry to say it wasn't done as well.

I found the main character, Tania, difficult to relate to. For the first third of the book she didn't sound authentic. The story did get better once she began debating the concept of humanity. What makes a human? At one point she became interested in music and literature. I did think the choice of fictional character she related was interesting.

I would have liked to learn more about why the fertility rate had gone so low. There was an ambiguous possible reason given, but nothing ever concrete. In end it was chalked up to needing more research.

Overall I gave this book 2 stars out of 5.