[Review] The Wicked We Have Done by Sarah Harian

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Title: The Wicked We Have Done

Series: Chaos Theory #1 (Tumblr)

Author: Sarah Harian (Twitter, Facebook, Website) 

Publisher: Penguin/InterMix Books

Genre: New Adult Fiction - Dystopian, Horror [violence and sexual content]

Release Date: March 18, 2014

Source: ebook via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This is no way effects my views or comments.

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Evalyn Ibarra never expected to be an accused killer and experimental prison test subject. A year ago, she was a normal college student. Now she’s been sentenced to a month in the compass room—an advanced prison obstacle course designed by the government to execute justice.

Locked up with nine notorious and potentially psychotic criminals, Evalyn must fight the prison and dismantle her past to stay alive. But the system prized for accuracy appears to be killing at random.

She doesn’t plan on making friends. She doesn’t plan on falling in love, either.

Whoa! Some may say this is romance, ehh there's some, some may say it's like a few other books out there, sure there's similarities, but I'm calling this a break through in the New Adult Genre and absolutely horrifying! 

I'm waiting for my past to come back and haunt me after reading this, much like it caused all that is wicked to come back and haunt Evalyn and her fellow inmates which doling out justice by the slice. Told in present day and past tense we follow along Evalyn's journey to the Compass Room (a second-chance moral compass) where she is prepared to die for her role in a major crime. The Compass Room uses modern technology to determine if one is truly guilty, and therefor executes them, or if the inmate deserves a second chance. More than one can come out alive, so who shall be set free...

Evelyn is strong and confident, to a fault. While she can start a fire (yay, Girl Scouts), she is still a vulnerable adult who is trying to determine who she can trust, who is innocent and who needs to die! All while coming to grips with her own situation that landed her in the Compass Room to start with. Carey, our male protagonist, is everything we could ask for... sexy, a little broken, selfless and unrelenting. As a team Evelyn and Carey spend the majority of their time trying to rationalize the craziness around them however there is time for a few steamy scenes. The secondary characters each have their own story and depth which reads off like a twenty-something cell block tango, minus the music. 

The pacing was great, each chapter ended with me turning the page. With only 272 pages I guarantee we're moving quickly as the past of each inmate unfolds and we learn their fate. The downside being a lack of non-Compass Room world building, e.g. If I'm not in jail, is the rest of the world dystopian-ish? Is there a designated time period where "X" technologies are available and not others? Exactly why did the Compass Room come about versus just allowing the jury to do its job?

Overall, know this... The writing of Harian can truly haunt you on one page, have you feeling warm inside on the next, and then have you with polar opposite feels on the next. 

• OMG!!!! I really loved this new novel for "New Adults" which tends to be a genre for soft erotica featuring college students. Instead we get, yes, some sex but so much more! There's a bit of mystery, conspiracy, dystopian, and horror!
• Loved the cast of characters each in their own way and experiencing their journeys in the Compass Room. Even if it made me read with the lights on. And maybe sleep with them on too. 
• The novel could be a standalone so I'm really curious to see how the second book "A Vault of Sins", coming Sept. 2014, dives us deeper into this twisted world. Hoping the same level of horror and suspense remains with a lot more outside-of-Compass-Room world building to take place.
• I seriously need to read up on Chaos Theory because I'm a nerd and a glutton for punishment. 

4 Stars: Liked it. Bought it. Awaiting sequel. You should do the same.