about Community 215
In a world where conformity is salvation and disobedience means death, one girl’s forbidden curiosity could either save her community or destroy everything she’s ever known.
Behind the towering walls of Community 215, life follows a strict order: marriages are arranged, careers are assigned, and even meals are rationed—all under the watchful eye of a carefully selected council. For seventeen-year-old Rhea, daughter of the community’s leader, this rigid existence is all she’s ever known. But a childhood memory of attempting to scale the walls haunts her, along with the brutal brand she bears as punishment.
When Brooks, a mysterious outsider, breaches the community’s defenses, Rhea makes a choice that will forever alter her destiny. Despite the permanent mark her past defiance earned her, she finds herself drawn to his dangerous tales of freedom beyond the walls. As Brooks secretly trains her in combat, Rhea discovers feelings she’s never been allowed to name—and truths about her community that could get them both killed.
As the annual Testing Day approaches—the ceremony that will determine both her future role and her life partner—Rhea must make an impossible choice: embrace the leadership position she’s been groomed for since birth, or risk everything for a chance at freedom with Brooks. But in a world where walls exist to imprison rather than protect, choosing wrong means more than just losing her future—it could mean losing her life.
“Community 215” is a riveting dystopian thriller that explores the price of freedom in a society built on lies, and the courage it takes to defy everything you’ve ever been taught to believe.
Fans of The Maze, The Hunger Games and Divergent will love this story.
Editorial Review ★★★★★
In this compelling addition to the dystopian genre, Dr. M.K. Black crafts a taut exploration of freedom, control, and the price of questioning everything you’ve been taught to believe. Through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Rhea, readers experience the suffocating confines of a society where every aspect of life—from meals to marriages—is meticulously controlled by a ruling council.
What sets this novel apart is its nuanced examination of indoctrination and awakening. Black masterfully portrays Rhea’s internal struggle, marked literally by the brand she bears from childhood defiance, as she grapples with competing truths. The author’s careful development of Rhea’s psychological journey from obedient daughter to questioning individual creates a compelling character arc that drives the narrative forward.
The relationship between Rhea and Brooks serves as an effective catalyst for the broader themes of freedom versus security. Their clandestine combat training sessions provide more than just physical preparation—they become a metaphor for Rhea’s growing awareness of her own capacity for independence. The forbidden nature of their connection adds emotional depth to the political intrigue.
Particularly impressive is the author’s world-building. The rigid structure of Community 215 feels unnervingly plausible, with its carefully rationed freedoms and ritualistic Testing Day. Black excels at revealing the community’s dark underpinnings through small details rather than heavy-handed exposition, creating an atmosphere of mounting tension as Rhea discovers the truth about her world.
The writing maintains suspense while exploring deeper questions about authority, truth, and the courage required to challenge systemic control. As Rhea faces the choice between her groomed leadership position and the uncertain promise of freedom, Black creates a compelling meditation on the cost of conformity and the price of rebellion.
“Community 215” stands as a worthy addition to the dystopian genre, offering readers both a gripping narrative and thoughtful exploration of timeless themes about individual freedom versus collective control.
From Chanticleer Books:
Rating: 4/5; Recommended!
Dr. M.K. Black’s Community 215 is a fast-paced, sci-fi/dystopian novel about a world that was torn apart, and the people struggling to survive it together.
Black gives us two teen protagonists, Rhea and Brooks, whom we grow to love. She creates a world both believable and terrifying. As our heroes collide with life inside and outside of the community, their world leaves readers wondering who the two can possibly trust.
Rhea once tried to climb the wall to get out of their community when she was a little girl. But her father, the leader of the community, caught her and has since that day drilled obedience to the rules into her head. However, she takes the risk of disobedience again at eleven years old, when she catches someone climbing the wall into the community. He begs for her help. She’s caught again and disciplined for trying to protect Brooks, a boy who seeks refuge from the Outcasts who live outside the wall.
Black masterfully develops Rhea’s community, and the people within it.
Though Rhea’s is only one such community of hundreds, Brooks is a reject of them all. Having lived outside of any community, he is considered a dangerous Outcast. He tries to convince Rhea that another world exists beyond the walls, a world where people are free and make their own decisions. But Rhea’s education, and the painful brand she received for saving Brooks, have taught her that only obedience and total honesty to her community will keep her alive.
Over several years, Brooks and Rhea grow close. The testing time is upon them, ready to determine the paths of their lives. Rhea hopes that, like her father, she will become the next leader. And, though she has never heard the word ‘love,’ she wants the tests to show that her mate will be Brooks.
Brooks, however, knew that it was love “at first sight” when he laid eyes on Rhea, as children. He could have opened the gates and let in the leader of his Outcast tribe of warriors right then, but he waited, taking the time to train Rhea in hand-to-hand combat, preparing her to survive the attack.
Brooks thinks only of Rhea and her well-being, and of their future together outside of the walls of the community.
Will Rhea believe him when he finally tells her that the communities are actually prisons to keep people docile at the mercy of the leaders? Their survival in this dangerous world is threatened by Rhea’s struggle to discover what is true. Whom should she believe, Brooks, or her father, the only leader she’s ever known?
Black’s enthralling plot will keep readers turning page after page. The ending of this story seems a bit abrupt, but Black could very well be setting us up for a follow-up book in what would be a dynamite series.
***
“Brooks tries to convince his beloved Rhea to turn against her dystopian home. In Community 215, she’ll have to decide who to trust, with her life on the line. Recommended!” – Chanticleer Reviews
About This Author
Defiance has not been easy. With a background in education and a PhD, I’ve been failed for my opinions, denied the right to speak the truth aloud, and even been offered private lessons by professors to help me to conform. I hope to highlight the beauty of freedom and freethinking through writing.
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