In a postapocalyptic Texas, there is a state-imposed rule that allows only one child per family, something especially important for Ava and her twin sister, Mira, daughters of the director of the Texas Family Planning Division. When their twin status is uncovered by the spiteful son of the governor, their father is arrested, and the girls run for their lives across several states and into the arms of an underground resistance. Though not the first book to deal with a one-child situation, this one is unique in that it was authored by twins. Utilizing an sf-fantasy setting and a survival-oriented plot, the Saunders sisters are careful to promote growth and differentiation between the twins when it is no longer necessary that they share one life. There are parallels to current news stories, such as immigration, environmental resources, and an autocratic political system. Try this with fans of James Dashner's Maze Runner series, Margaret Peterson Haddix's Double Identity (2005), or clone books such as Rachel Vincent's Brave New Girl? (2017).

In a dystopian United States where families are permitted only one child, twin teens Ava and Mira break the law simply by existing.The red-haired, green-eyed sisters function as one person in their hometown of Dallas, fooling the country's high-tech identification system by alternating who goes aboveground each day. When the tyrannical governor's grandson discovers their secret, the girls are forced to flee. Following their father's cryptic instructions over the course of a week, the sisters cross the treacherous desert in search of safety—and discover the seeds of a rebellion along the way. A dystopic future well-trod in many ways but inventive in others, Ava and Mira's world is an all-too-believable mix of advanced technology and environmental collapse. Only one substantial character's ethnicity is identified—Lucia, a Mexican immigrant who briefly crosses the twins' path. In their debut, Saunders and Saunders, themselves twins, lend an authentic voice to the girls' first-person narration, which flows nearly indistinguishably between alternating chapters. As they leave their old life behind, Ava and Mira grapple with existing as two separate people for the first time. Both tense and liberating, this shift in their identities only increases the stakes as the girls figure out their roles in the rising rebellion. Readers are in for a fast-paced ride, poised for a sequel, as the twins embrace their father's call, in the words of Walt Whitman, to "resist much, obey little." (Science fiction. 13-18)</i