We Set the Dark on Fire

Daniela Vargas attends the Medio School for Girls, where young women are trained for one of two roles in a society split along class lines. Graduates of one specialization go on to run a husband's household. Graduates of the other raise his children. Either way, they live in comfort and luxury, well away from the frequent uprisings of the lower class.

Dani is the top student in her school, but her background is a lie. If the truth comes out, she will be sent back to the fringes of society, so she guards it closely.

Graduation brings choices that school never prepared her for. A resistance group fighting to bring equality to Medio asks her to spy for them. Dani has to weigh the privilege her parents fought to win for her against the cause of a free Medio.

The book is a dystopian young adult novel built around a divided state and a government shown to be corrupt. A forbidden love is also at stake for Dani, which adds a personal risk to the political one. The tension comes from a heroine with a secret who is pushed to decide what her hard-won place is worth.