This is a really intense and interesting insight into a scarily believable future of our world. With water scarce and sold at an all-time premium and with the subsequent abolishment of the structured societal hierarchy as we know it, anarchy reigns on Earth. 
 Lauren lives a relatively safe life inside the confines of her walled community, on the outskirts of LA. Lauren's preacher father strove to create a community that thrived on the now almost-obsolete religious teachings he believes in. He excelled in his endeavour... until he didn't. Lauren then finds herself thrust into a new world she knows little about and must find her own way of viewing all it contains, without her father's guidance. 
 I really liked how this managed to be religious without being overly preachy and the creation of Lauren's Earthseed beliefs was fascinating. This was both an insight to religion, from both a believer and a non-believer's perspective, as well as a look at how this way of thinking adapts to a dystopian world where little faith remains. Lauren is very much an active agent of change and her new way of thinking could just be humanity's salvation. 
 Whilst these concepts put forward some interesting points of discussion, I did find the plot initially a little slow building. This was a fascinating insight to a recognisable yet ravaged world but the content of the plot did not progress much from this point, for quite some time.