This is an adaptation of the myth of Antigone, set in a post-apocalyptic future. After an undescribed nuclear event, all that is left of humanity now lives in a single city in the only inhabitable place on earth, waiting for the planet to recover enough to be inhabitable again. Fertility rates are low, so all people must contribute DNA to a shared bank to be scrubbed of radiation damage and stored to ensure humanity’s survival. When Creon decrees that Polynices’s DNA will be excluded after he dies fighting for free elections, Antigone chooses to preserve all that is left of her brother, potentially at the cost of not only her life, but also any hope of future children. This book matches the stakes of its inspiration and makes the costs painfully clear. Author Veronica Roth mixes in contemporary ideas about personhood and reproductive rights as well. Antigone, Ismene, and all the other characters who are able to carry a pregnancy to term are valued for their wombs, but that means their bodies become communal resources. As in Sophocles’ famous play, Antigone forces the other characters to come to terms with the fact that survival may not be worth making sacrifices of everything that gives life true meaning. This book is an incredibly clever, highly thought-provoking adaptation of an ancient play, but readers should be aware that, like its source material, very few characters make it out alive.  – Krishni Burns