For Their Blood Burns Wild
- 382 pages
- 14 hours of reading
In the vein of The Grapes of Wrath, this story explores themes of power abuse, corruption, prejudice, family, community, and survival, resonating with today's political climate. Set in 1938, the American government and religious institutions exploit the flawed science of eugenics to forcibly sterilize those labeled "Impures." Under the Genetic Reclamation Act, individuals deemed impure—criminals, homosexuals, the mentally ill, or those with disabilities in their family—are captured by agents of the Eugenics Bureau, an FBI offshoot, and subjected to sterilization. Families are torn apart, confined to ghettos, their properties seized, and relegated to menial jobs. Those who resist flee to overcrowded slums or hide in tunnels beneath the city. When their daughter Esther is born blind, Jim, Rita, and their son Jack escape their previous lives, trying to survive on society's fringes while evading Eugenics agents. One night, while sheltering under a bridge, they are brutally attacked by a group of "Pures," led by the son of Senator Blackthorpe, who authored the harshest provisions of the Genetic Reclamation Act. They are rescued by Lazarus, a former prizefighter, who takes them to The Burrow, an abandoned rail station in the tunnels where other Impures seek refuge. Unbeknownst to them, they are being hunted by the ruthless Special Agent Artemis Pembroke, a sociopath devoted to social purity and instructed by Sen. Blackthorpe to use
