Seventeen-year-old Caspa is fiercely independent, which puts her in great danger in the conformist dystopia that is Astro City. When she wakes up after getting her memory swiped, she only knows the three Rules of Astro City:
Believe, Beware, and Remain.
She doesn’t know how she got there, where she came from, or even who her parents are. You're not allowed to know anything other than what you're told. That's Rule No 1 in Astro City: Believe.
Caspa has the feeling that something is wrong, and so does her roommate, the handsome, mysterious Rum. At first she pushes these thoughts away, knowing the malicious government Counsel stamps out free thinking with brutal violence.
But when she begins to dream in new dimensions, and flashbacks remind her there's life beyond Astro City, she makes the fateful decision to find freedom. Together, she and Rum plot to break out of the paralyzing city, but their escape could cost them their lives.
Believe is a passionate story about rebellion and the beginnings of a twisted romance. The story goes beyond genre limits, with a complex emotional and metaphysical world. Believe is the first novel of the Rules Trilogy. The second books, Beware and Remain will be released in 2013.
--- About The Author ---
Lisa Alfonso was nineteen when she finished Believe. She moved from the small town of Montgomery, Texas only to move to the slightly bigger town of Huntsville, Texas to attend college. She is currently majoring in English at Sam Houston State University with aspirations of one day becoming a book editor, all the while trying to pursue her dreams of one day becoming a bestselling author. When she isn’t writing, she is playing guitar, waitressing, or stargazing. She hopes to one day live in the mountains, preferably where it snows.
--- Exclusive Excerpt ---
“We’re very luck to have you, Caspa,” Rum says so quietly that I almost don’t hear him.
My stomach does this weird flip-flop thing when he looks to me.
“Well,” I say uncertainly, “I’m not much help. You have the nerve and Cal has the information. Me? I have, what, my dreams? Fat lot of good that’ll do us.”
“You have your heart,” Rum answers in a bemused sort of voice, as if he’d just now realized this. “It will be the glue that holds this entire operation together.”
I fold my legs Indian style. “Do you think it will work?”
Rum hesitates "Somebody might die." He glances sideways at me. "You could die. I could die. Even Jai or Etz—”
"You said it yourself, you know. If we don't get out of here, it'll be because we died trying." I hug my knees closer to my chest. "I would rather die now than live here for eighty more years."
--- Look out for more from Lisa Alfonso, and more powerful young adult titles in the Vittoriosa catalogue.
advertisement