I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

Extinction Of All Children is the 1st book in a trilogy by L.J. Epps. I have seen it referred to as both the Extinction and the Extinction of All Children trilogy. If I really like a book I hate to wait for more in the series. Fortunately, all 3 books have been published.

At first, I am not sure why but the series reminded me of the Shadow Children 7 book series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. (If you have not read the Shadow Children you should definitely check it out.) Both were written well and involved societies in which children were not allowed to be born. That is where the similarities end.

In Extinction, the world is divided into 3 classes - the rich, the working class, and the poor - in which they live in separate territories and are not allowed to mix. The poor are forbidden to have any children. This series focuses on Emma, the last child born in Territory L. Any children born after her were taken to be killed. She is the last to turn 18. She knows this is wrong and you will need to read the book to find out what she does about it.


Review published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 4/10/19. Will publish on Scribd.com when available.

An interesting dystopian novel that involves a young lady who is searching to find her voice and purpose.

This book was crazy, but in a good way.
I actually liked this book better than the Hunger Games.
A four star read.

Craigluy is a world divided according to class. Lower, middle and upper classes are separated and live totally different lives. In Territory L, Emma Whisperer is the last child to turn 18. The last baby to grow up. Lower class citizens have been deemed irresponsible and are no longer allowed to have children. Anyone who comes up pregnant is arrested, forced to bear the child and watch as the baby is taken away to be killed. It is a brutal world to live in. Those in Territory M and Territory U have other options, but President Esther controls all aspects of society no matter which class. Emma Whisperer....the last child....wants to change everything. She wants everyone to live together again...for people to be free.

The Extinction of all Children series is a trilogy. Book one introduces Emma and centers around Territory L. The storyline moves from L to the middle class area and on to the upperclass walled-in territory in the final book. I enjoyed how the characters developed throughout this series. Emma knows in the first book that she wants to see President Esther's policies destroyed...to remove the segregation from the people of Craigluy. Over the 3 books, Emma and the followers/supporters she gathers go from dreaming of freedom to actually fighting to try and make it happen. President Esther is a worthy, tricky adversary. She is wiley and wise. I found myself not able to totally hate her. Down at her very core, there is some good....at one point she actually had the best interests of the people at heart. But it got twisted inside her mind. Absolute power really does corrupt.

All in all this series is a very enjoyable read. I found the premise a bit unrealistic, but the story for me was enjoyable enough to override my sense of realism. The charcters are nicely developed over the 3 parts of the story. There is a lot of action, and the story moves along at a nice pace. There is plenty of suspense and some nice twists in the tale.

Enjoyable read! Nothing inappropriate for older teenagers, but be aware that there is discussion of abuse, death, imprisonment, murder, infanticide, torture, violence and other topics that may require a trigger warning for some students/adults reading this series.

**I voluntarily read review copies of the three books in this series by L. J. Epps via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

This was a fun dystopia to read. A little bit The Breeder, and a little bit Hunger Games. Esther REALLY reminded me of President Coin from Mockingjay. Looking forward to the next two books.

Interesting premise, creepily similar to The Hunger Games. But boy oh boy, this is no Hunger Games. The story quickly devolves into a ridiculous opus on an evil President killing all the babies in Territory L (for losers or lowlifes or, not really sure what it was supposed to stand for).

The writing is amateurish, the characters one dimensional, and I started skipping whole paragraphs, then whole pages, just to bypass the repetitive descriptions of every, single, little, thing they do and say.

Can't recommend this book.

I was really stuck between two and three stars.... The story does have some redeeming qualities. I was hooked enough to read until the conclusion. There was a slight cliff hanger - an escape but without any real resolution.

Overall this story was very much like Hunger Games but without the details and characters which made that book so relatable. I felt this book was pushing the questions of poverty, race, and overall inequalities. Perhaps a sequel would give some explanations.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I'm not sure why I had not heard of this book before, but it's most definitely a great read! The story is unique...and scary. I cannot see how the US could devolve to this point, but it's scary to see in my mind. L J Epps has done a fantastic job of making the reader see life as it could be in the future. The characters work as a family and as individuals, making it hard to like or dislike them. The hardships faced at the lower levels of poverty and the differences between lives lived just a few miles apart are staggering. Fear and hardship are constant companions to those living in the L district. How they live and prosper is definitely a story worth reading.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Extinction of All Children by L. J. Epps
4 Stars

<em>A young adult, fantasy novel about a teenager who is the last eighteen-year-old in her territory. There will never be another child; every baby born after her has been taken away. Everyone wonders why she survived.


Emma Whisperer was born in 2080, in the small futuristic world of Craigluy. President Esther, in charge for the last twenty-two years, has divided their world into three territories, separated by classes—the rich, the working class, and the poor—because she believes the poor should not mingle with the others. And, the poor are no longer allowed to have children, since they do not have the means to take care of them.


Any babies born, accidentally or willfully, are killed. Emma is the last eighteen-year-old in her territory; every baby born after her has died. Somehow, she survived this fate.


During the president’s Monday night speech, she announces a party will be held to honor the last child in the territory, Emma Whisperer. Emma must read a speech, expressing how happy she is to be the last eighteen-year-old.


Emma doesn’t like the rules; she doesn’t believe in them. So, she feels she must rebel against them. Her family doesn’t agree with her rebellion, since they are hiding a big secret. If this secret gets out, it will be disastrous, and deadly, for her family.


During Emma’s journey, she meets—and becomes friends with—Eric. He is one of the guards for the president. She also befriends Samuel, another guard for the president, who is summoned to watch over her. As Emma meets new people, she doesn’t know who she can trust. Yet, she finds herself falling for a guy, something which has never happened before.


After doing what she feels is right, Emma finds herself in imminent danger. In the end, she must make one gut-wrenching decision, a decision that may be disastrous for them all.</em>

As soon as I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I would enjoy it. The writing is a little rough and a lot of the comparisons are unconventional, but the overall plot and story itself, are very intriguing. Emma lives in a world that is divided into three territories. L, for Lower class, M, for middle, and U for Upper. She lives in the poorest class, territory L where it is illegal to have babies. Any citizen who impregnates or becomes pregnant is thrown into jail and the child, upon birth, is killed.

All this is courtesy of President Esther. After several successful terms of being president, the people voted for her to be president until she resigns or dies. This is when she decides to enact all of her laws regarding separation and murdering innocent babies.

Emma was the last baby allowed to grow to 18 years old. President Esther decides to throw a party in Emma's honor and during her speech, she rebels against Esther and her ideas. Thus begins a rebellion.

As I mentioned, the writing isn't perfect, but this story just completely intrigues me. I like Emma as a character. I feel a lot of female leads in series today are whiny and try to act tough, but fall short. I feel Emma is realistic and though she's no kick-ass assassin, she holds her own pretty well. After speaking against President Esther and her policies, Emma is thrown in jail. The way the rest of the book progresses is quite unexpected. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes dystopians and has an open mind. I'm continuing with the next two books in this trilogy and I'm excited to see how Emma's story progresses.

I was immediately intrigued by the world without children. The world tyrannized by the president that took pregnant women and their new-born babies away.

Whisperer family were good friends with President Esther a long time ago. Before she became this radical president. And it so happened that Emma, their younger daughter, is the last child in Craigluy. Every baby born after her has been murdered. What makes her special?

L. J. Apps had this appealing idea of creating a futuristic society on the brim of extinction of all children, talking about important subjects like poverty, population control, human rights - whose choice is it, after all, to have or do not have a baby? Divided into three territories - Territory L, Territory M, and Territory U, people are grouped together depending on their economic status (lower class, medium class, and upper class).

As interesting as the idea sounds, I can’t say that it was executed well. It is not a bad book by any means, but it didn’t leave me wanting more.

It reads very quickly and easily (sometimes too easily), has these elements that most teenagers will probably enjoy, like:
- getting ready for the event in Emma’s honor. That Cinderella moment of choosing a dress for someone whose family is barely scraping by;
- the chosen one trope and all male attention;
- romance and jealousy;
- cheesy lines;
- training and fighting.
The classic tropes of a YA dystopian.

The book has a feeling of a manuscript that requires more editing to polish it out. It needed editing of the repetitiveness of some words. Editing of the plot lines and events.

Everyone liked Emma and wanted to be Emma, but she hasn’t really done anything. Or at least the way the events were presented, I didn’t feel like she has done enough to deserve the attention.

As interesting as the plot sounds, it was one of those books that I forgot immediately after reading, and have no interest to continue with the rest of the series.

This book was very good, it kind of reminded me of HungerGames and Divergent, with a splash of the Selection. I felt that, though, it might not have been thought through in some places. It felt like since her statement was aired publicly that the punishment was severally lacking. Thirty days in lock up with meals seems like a dream for someone who didn't always know if they were getting their next meal. And it seemed as if she had favorable treatment.

Good book, but some things didn't really add up for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. The review is my own thoughts.

Extinction of all Children blew me away! I hadn't read anything by the author before, but I'm definitely adding them to my buy list!

The writing style is fantastic and I really enjoyed the story and characters.

I read this book in one sitting. The story itself is intriguing and paints a dark picture of a world where poor people simply aren’t allowed to procreate. However, I felt the writing was stilted and somewhat repetitive which rather spoiled the effect.

I will probably read the next book in the series to see what happens to Emma, but more because I’m interested in the story than because I’m keen to read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book.

This is the first book in the series and I thought it was okay. It had started getting repetitive and that made me slightly annoyed. But the story idea is great. I will most likely read the next book to see what happens next but probably not right now. You can read this book in a day.

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book and had to read it. The concept of not allowing the poor to not have children was one I hadn't come across before. The characters were precise and not over thought. Enough description to paint the picture in my imagination without it being too drawn out. The storyline flowed well and lead on to the next plot with ease. The book lead to the next next one well and left me wanting to read on right away. Highly recommended young adult book.

There were some elements of Extinction of All Children that I really liked, but those elements had trouble trumping what fell flat for me. This is a dystopian story with a really interesting premise, some intriguing characters, and a story that picks up steam as it goes, but I had a hard time choosing to return to it in order to finish. A lot of the book feels a little formal and stilted, with characters phrasing things in odd ways that threw me out of the story in confusion. The strongest element of the book by far was the worldbuilding. I had a good sense of where Emma, the main character, was in relation to her territory and her world in general, which made it a little easier for me to get back into the story any time I was thrown out of it. I definitely felt more invested the longer I read, but I was ultimately left feeling like Extinction of All Children tried to do things that have already been done better by other works in the genre.

I was very excited to read this book because the premise is so intriguing! The story is interesting, and the plot a good one.

Unfortunately, the execution was not as good as the premise. I skimmed much of the book due to redundancy, too much detail, and a whining main character. The writing felt stilted and I almost stopped reading, but again, because the story was good, wanted to know what happened.

Accurately depicted as a cross between The Hunger Games and Divergent series, I read all three of the books in this series within a week or two. They were interesting, fast-paced and enthralling. It's always interesting to picture these dystopian worlds and imagine how humanity got there, but even more so with the state of our current affairs!

A few story lines were slightly cheesy and the writing was exactly high-quality with the characters coming across as immature and whiny most of the time, but the story itself was truly inspired!

I didn't think I'd like this book. I didn't like the title. NetGalley offered me this book, so I thought I would trust their judgement since they do such a good job in their recommendations. I LOVED this book. From the very first page, to the very last page, it gripped me. After finishing the book, I'm feeling tugs of similarity from another series, The Hunger Games, but not enough to worry me. I'm extremely excited to be starting book 2...Journey to Territory M.

Emma is on the run. She is running away from her territory, her President and her family. She is in the back of a truck with a fellow guard, running to territory M. Hopefully when they arrive their cause will be taken up and supported by the people. Hopefully she can find her beloved niece, Abigail, who is just a baby. In a world where no children are allowed. This is her goal. To save this child's life. To let the people know that what their President is doing to the children is wrong. And hopefully to be able to help her family. Before it's too late.
A book equal in excitement as the hunger games. Can't wait to read books two and three.
Excellent!!