The Final Orchard

From debut-author CJ Rivera, comes a harrowing tale of a parent risking it all for her child. The Final Orchard is perfect for those looking for a novel that captures them like television shows Silo and Black Mirror.

In a society where bionic enhancements are the epitome of wealth and power, scientific researcher Dr Rosio Arata threatens to topple the status quo with her pioneering organic enhancements. Yet when a horrific accident kills her daughter, Ro's quest for answers leads her to becoming trapped in a twisted version of her life's work.

In a bleak underground colony, sixteen year-old Ever is primed to rise through the ranks, gain selection and become a Saviour. It's her dream to journey to the Surface and fight the army of Forms overwhelming the globe, catching up with the boy she loves in the process. Yet nothing in this world is what it seems and soon the secrets buried in her bunker begin to unravel, threatening the future of everything.


Genre: Science Fiction

"The Final Orchard is a tense, compelling page-turner in which both the characters and audience must distinguish between the truth and lies told by a near-future society ruled by blackmail and indoctrination. CJ Rivera grafts together the inherent anxiety of the consequences of climate cataclysm and technological advancement on the most vulnerable, with the drama of characters fighting for their most precious dreams in a world that ruthlessly uses and discards for ego and profit. Compulsively readable and full of branching twists, this chilling and thrilling tale of the repercussions of human ambition, greed, and even love will keep you glued to the page until its bittersweet end." - Ness Brown

"The Final Orchard is a layered mystery that unfolds the pages of dystopian horror at a blistering pace. Rivera masterfully delivers a story that has one foot in the present and another on the precipice of the future, making it all the more real, and terrifying." - Chris Panatier

"An enthralling new voice in dystopian fiction, CJ Rivera puts a gripping, exciting, and downright stunning spin on the thrilling tensions unleashed by a female researcher's scientific choices and a young woman's underground journey to a Surface world where nothing is what it seems, maybe not even her deepest self, unless she battles for it. A truly remarkable debut." - Patricia Raybon

"Two women - one trapped in a dystopic society underground, the other in a bio-hacked future of her own making - face impossible choices in The Final Orchard and its twisty, helix-shaped plot adorned with thorny questions about agency, identity, and, technology." - Lauren C Teffeau