Life First takes place one hundred years into a post apocalyptic
nation. After the pandemics wiped out eighty percent of the world’s population,
the new government made a law, Life First. If an individual needed an organ or
blood, it was to be given to them. A married pregnant woman is held in the
highest regard because she is the giver of life. Children are told through statistics
when they should or shouldn’t sacrifice to save others. The citizens have to
give blood every two years to maintain a steady blood supply as well as have
their blood type logged into a data base if someone was ill or in need of a
donation. Kelsey Reed, a woman in her early 20s is marked for a kidney
extraction surgery for a man who is in need of one and she seems to be the only
match. In the days leading up to the surgery, she stays with her Father, a lead
gubernatorial candidate and sitting state senator. The night before the
appointment, she makes an attempt to flee with the help of her boyfriend Luke and
the man who witnessed her pregnant mother’s death, Dr. Grant. The attempt fails
and Kelsey is sent to a holding facility until her trail. There it is revealed
she is pregnant and wouldn’t have been able to have the surgery done if she had
gone to the appointment. If she is found guilty, not only will her baby will be
stripped from her and given to another family but she will also be sentenced to
death through donation. Her uterus will be removed and she will be sent to a
long term holding until she is matched with someone who is in need of any kind
of vital organ. With the help of her father, Luke, Dr. Grand and her Uncle Albert,
Kelsey hopes to avoid a guilty verdict.
If not, they will have to put their risky escape plan in motion.
Life First is a different outlook on the future of a society
after an apocalypse claims billions of lives. Rather than focus on the first
year or so after the outbreak, RJ Crayton takes the story a century into the
future. The prospect of the government taking on a law like Life First after
the pandemic is very believable. The author did a fantastic job of making this
novel as realistic as possible, that is, until the tail end. I try not to give
parts of the ending away but this is a scene that I have to address. If you
plan on reading Life First for yourself, stop reading this now. In the last
handful of chapters, Kelsey and Luke make a daring escape from the short-term
holding facility. They make their way to Kelsey’s apartment. There, Luke
invited their small group of family and friends to witness a small wedding
ceremony. Kelsey and Luke apparently had enough time to change into a Tux as
well as a white dress. This scene seemed so unrealistic and the whole time I’m
thinking, “Shouldn’t they be on the run to Peoria?” Good thing this was not the
very ending to the book or else that would have ruined it for me. Overall Life
First is well written and for the most part, very convincing that something
like what happened to Kelsey could very well happen to any one of us.
Until Next Time…
~Fiction-Book-Reviewer
