The Perfect Generation

Sixteen-year-old Tawny Tamblyn lives in the cyberworld of the future. She battles virtual opponents in online games, attends online school, and goes to parties as a sim character far prettier than herself. One night, as family still eats dinner together IRL, her mother announces she is sick. But no one gets sick anymore--not since the Evolutionary Committee began sterilizing those with genetic imperfections. Homo sapiens went extinct and homo superiorus, a.k.a "perfects," arrived. When her mother dies, Tawny's father announces they're leaving--right now, in the middle of the night. Soon, they are deep in the Lost Woods, where they sleep in holes in the ground and forage for food. After getting separated from her family, Tawny is taken in by a group of "wild people." Though not everyone in the group trusts her, Micah, a boy Tawny's age, teaches her how to live in the forest. Tawny enjoys hanging out with Micah and collecting real life feathers and stones, though she is worried about her family. Danger lurks everywhere in the forest. City "protectors" are being sent to patrol the area, looking for runaways. When the protectors close in on their group, Tawny learns the horrible truth about why they are there. She knows she must take the fight to the protector's own head quarters--deep in the city. What she finds there is worse than she ever imagined.