Zack McGregor does not enjoy the life of a typical youth. Rather than attend school with his teenaged peers, Zack has a high level job working directly under the Prime Minister of the Inside, which is supposed to be a refuge from the dangerous people living in the Outside. He doesn’t like his job, but things begin to look up for Zack when he meets and falls in love with Layna, a mole planted by the Inside government in a rebel group known as the Freedom Fighters. Despite the relentless danger, Layna spies on the Freedom Fighters while reporting back to the Inside. But the rebels know there is a mole and they will stop at nothing to root it out.
The Inside, as described by Natalie Hibberd, is a beautiful city plagued by increasingly outrageous acts of terrorism. The terrorists are led by an embittered group of young men and women who feel as though they have been snubbed by the privileged citizens of the Inside. The narrative is heavy with dialogue from a vast multitude of friends, family members, rebels, and nosy neighbors. The teenagers take on very adult roles and the parents and governing officials take a back seat. Inside Out lays the groundwork for a potentially terrific young adult dystopian series.
