Genesis Girl by Jennifer Bardsley

Summary: Eighteen-year-old Blanca has lived a sheltered life. Her entire childhood has been spent at Tabula Rasa School where she’s been protected from the Internet. Blanca has never been online and doesn’t even know how to text. Her lack of a virtual footprint makes her extremely valuable, and upon graduation, Blanca and those like her are sold to the highest bidders. Blanca is purchased by Cal McNeal, who uses her to achieve personal gain. But the McNeals are soon horrified by just how obedient and non-defiant Blanca is. All those mind-numbing years locked away from society have made her mind almost impenetrable. By the time Blanca is ready to think for herself, she is trapped. Her only chance of escape is to go online

Blanca’s been kept digitally pure her whole life – away from the internet, with no virtual identity. Her future depends on it, because she is days away from graduation, when her digital identity will be harvested by a corporation who will make her the face of its advertising. Vestals like Blanca are considered trustworthy by the public because they have no nasty real identity to detract from the products they pitch. But Blanca’s fate changes when a virus – a viral blogger – takes her picture and posts it online. Purchased by the blogger’s father in attempt to reunite with his son, Blanca is soon drawn into a world she never imagined – one where actual feelings, relationships, and choices matter. Her purchaser, Cal, turns out to be a decent guy who wants to give Blanca a real life, and when she falls in love with his son, she begins to question everything she has been taught. When Blanca tries to help her Vestal friends, she is drawn into secrets and lies that go back to the very founder of the Vestal order. But Blanca’s greatest struggle is internal, as she fights against years of conditioning to become her own person and save the people she loves. A fast-paced cautionary tale about the dangers of technology and the even more insidious dangers of extremism.

GENESIS GIRL is out now.

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