Latitude

Four generations ago, Earth was rendered uninhabitable; the sun too hot, the land too barren. Those who survived were forced underground, where civilization divided into compounds. In Compound Eleven only the cruel survive. Fighting is entertainment, violence is a way of life, and hierarchy is everything. For the Primes who inhabit the fifth floor, life is comfortable. For those on the floors below it is anything but. Sixteen-year-old hobby fighter Else Hamilton may have been born on the second floor, but she was born to survive. Except she doesn’t want to survive compound life. She wants to be released above ground, to feel fresh air against her skin, to taste true freedom, even if the price is certain death. But there is only one way that Compound Eleven releases a citizen above ground, and that is to punish them for a most heinous crime: murder. One Prime, Wren Edelman, is as cruel as Else, and as strong as her too. And as determined as Else is to taste freedom, he is determined to make her stay—determined to stop her from becoming a murderous monster, since he knows that deep down...she is anything but