In a genre that seems to be all the rage right now (thank you, Suzanne Collins), it’s always nice to find a new YA dystopian series that you just can’t seem to put down. Such is the case with Lisa Stasse’s debut, The Forsaken, which hit shelves last month. The first in a planned trilogy, The Forsaken, is a fast-paced novel that’s unsurprisingly drawing comparisons to The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth’s Divergent series. But you’ll quickly get sucked into the story and soon forget the aforementioned comparisons are why you decided to give it a chance in the first place.

Set in the near future, The Forsaken follows Alenna, a 16-year-old orphan living in the U.N.A., a super-country that was once the United States, Mexico, and Canada. But when she fails a government-mandated test, she’s sent to Island Alpha (a.k.a. The Wheel) where all would-be criminals end up. Life expectancy for prisoners on the island is only two years, so Alenna and the other inhabitants struggle to survive in the less-than-ideal conditions.

Here, Stasse talks about her inspiration for the book, answers some burning questions about book one, and reveals for the first time the title of the next book in the trilogy. Warning: Mild spoilers ahead! 

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