Each citizen must contribute to society. If a citizen fails to find a suitable objective, one will be assigned. Seventeen-year-old Astra Fairwood has spent her life in the Canopy Complex – a glittering city in the clouds where Assembly members live free from disease and the telltale signs of aging. Far away, in the Donor Zone, a hidden population exists solely to supply the blood plasma that allows the Assembly to thrive. As the daughter of the Chief Enforcer, Astra has never questioned the system. Why would she? Her future is secure – a life of parties and privilege. Until everything is taken from her. Cast out of the Canopy and condemned to the Donor Zone, Astra is forced into the very world she was raised to fear. The Founder claims the Zone provides a haven for society's worst – the criminals, the lawless, the expendable. But the truth is far more dangerous than she imagined. When Astra meets a girl in the Zone who challenges everything she thought she wanted, she begins to question not only the Assembly but the future that was chosen for her as well. With tensions rising and the people she loves most in danger, Astra must soon decide who the real monsters are – and how far she's willing to go to stop them.
