The Rebel Trap is a fairly self-contained sequel to The Rebel Within, and although the author does a good job catching up the reader on basic information necessary to understand the world and the characters, I still recommend starting the first book in the series. That having been said, I actually enjoyed this book more as it is faster paced and goes deeper into character development at the same time.

The main premise of the story is the world where men have been rendered obsolete due to scientific advances that made it possible for two women to have children. Contrary to popular assumptions, this world is neither less violent nor necessarily kinder to women as human nature inevitably remains the same. Most of the action is narrated by 16 year old Annabelle, who displays a perfect balance of vulnerability and strength, with an added layer of very typical teen angst that adds realism to the fantastic setup. Her internal conflict- following orders versus doing what is right as well as choosing between personal needs and safety of the loved ones- is far from groundbreaking, but the author does an excellent job in both pacing and characterization to keep our interest throughout. Every player – heroes, villains and those in between- is a complete, memorable person with realistic, if not immediately clear, motivations. The characters of Morgan and Seth are especially impressive, considering they spend so little time "on-screen." Somehow they manage to get not just into Annabelle’s head, but the reader’s as well, making us care about their fate while still knowing very little about them.

As modern YA offerings go, The Rebel Trap is fairly light on both romance and violence (although as a mother of two teen boys I found some scenes pretty hard to read, which of course is part of the point). It is definitely a thinking person’s story, raising questions on everything from gender identity to medical ethics to limits of government power in humanity’s quest for safety and perfection. This is a good book to read with your teen, but has enough solid action scenes and interesting characters to be an enjoyable read for any adult fans of thriller/dystopia genre.