3.5 stars because I really liked it but not enough to give it 4 stars. I don't know what to label this book. It definately wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it was a dystopia. I guess I must not have paid enough attention to the description. What I liked: The MC's were interesting. There is some romance to it. Which I think is what saved this book for me.What I didn't: While the author spent a lot of time building and showing us the class system but neglects to build the world around this class system. Why is it like this? Has it always been like this? The plot was pretty predictable. The villians were pretty 1 dimensional.It was way too short. Overall it was an entertaining read for the evening but not something I will gush about to everyone. To be honest, when I first agreed to read this book I didn't expect to enjoy it very much. The setting and feel of the story is dystopian. There's a place where babies are bred for the menial, out-of-sight jobs that benefit Society members. Those jobs include picking up the city's garbage, laborers, thinkers, etc. Society members are affluent people who are born to the position. A person cannot go from being a part of the system to a part of Society ... legally, anyway.Once you strip away the dystopian aspects of this book, what you're really left with a classic story of a boy and a girl from two separate sides of the proverbial tracks who fall in love ...Helper12, whose real name is Benna, is almost illiterate. She only knows how to read the medical charts, and a few other things, needed to get by in her "job" at the Pre Ward. Thomas, the Sloanes' biological son, helps her by buying her a dictionary for his reader that he loans her. He also takes her out in public to the Commons and a park with a lake. Benna is awed by the things she sees, things that only Society members are granted access to. During their time together, Thomas and Benna begin having feelings for each other. They dream of running away to a place where they can be together without the risk of someone sending them to the labor camps for being together, which is a violation of Society rules.Will they be able to find a place for just the three of them?Helper12 kept me engaged from the beginning to the end. I rooted for Thomas and Benna the entire story. I also enjoyed the dystopian setting. It lent an added level of the forbidden to this story that any reader would appreciate. This would be a book that I would recommend to all lovers of fiction, despite your preference of genre.
What do You think about HELPER12 (2011)?
This futuristic dystopian novel was a pleasant surprise.
—Emily
