The Inside Girl

In the near future, America has been divided into two sides: the Inside and the Outside. To the citizens of Town Center Community, a shopping mall that has been converted into living spaces and sealed off, the Outside might as well be another planet. They have not communicated with, or even seen the Outside for almost two decades. They don't know if anyone is alive out there, or, if they are, how they live. One of the residents of Town Center Community is Kimberly. She's 17, one of the first people born on the Inside. She has lived her entire life in stores. This is a relative luxury; her father, Nolan, holds a powerful position within the community. Still, she has never seen the sun, never felt a breeze. We meet Kim as she finally learns the truth about what happened to her mother, who she has not seen since she was three. Her mother was expelled from the community for an illegal second pregnancy. And now Kim wants to leave the safety and comfort of her structure to look for her mother and the sibling she didn't know she had. It will be a one-way trip; when you leave an Inside community, you cannot return. Once gone, never welcomed. "The Inside Girl" starts with a taste of life on the Inside as Kim prepares to leave it. Her best friend, Gracie, who lives in a kiosk with her parents, is by her side as she builds her body and her knowledge of the Outside, of which little is known. What will she find? What will she need? How can she go about finding her mother? Gracie even accompanies Kim into the tenements of Macy's, where there is an elderly craftswoman who can make a very special kind of jewelry. Then Kim and her father venture into completely foreign territory – the ruined city just outside her structure. They are accompanied by two "expellees" – Miriam, the Asian former security officer who leads a double life, and Theo, a huge Black man and part-time preacher. The group survives an immediate encounter with one of the gangs that wait beyond pedestrian airlocks on Opening Days to attack and rob quarries – people fresh from an Inside com. But one of the gang members holds a clue to Kim's mother's whereabouts, a nearby Outside community that is harboring a terrible secret: it has been built by slaves, and Kim's mother is one of them. Before Kim and her companions can even begin the struggle to simply survive in the Outside, they must escape from Mill River Community, and they do, leading a revolt of all the slaves. It is the beginning of the legend of Kimberly and Company. And the start of "The Inside Girl" novel. The stories about them will spread, perhaps exaggerated with time and mileage. They tell of the Black giant – he becomes larger with every retelling – who inspired the revolt. They tell of the strong Asian female warrior – made progressively more unstoppable – who spread the word so that others could be freed. They tell of Gracie, the cooks' daughter and courageous best friend. And, most of all, they tell of the remarkable, resourceful girl who believed it was all possible, and who, along with her father, helped make it happen. "The Inside Girl" trilogy is about what is worth risking your way of life for. And how one determined girl can change everything.