Y Negative
Imagine a world with only one gender, the male. Only gay relationships. There would be no need to bigot or discriminate any longer, right?
WRONG!!
In this Dystopia world the male gender is divided into 4 sub-genders:
1 – The Mascs, they are truly 100% genetically male
2 – The Exins, also genetically male but with some abnormalities that makes them more feminine.
3 – The Andros, Y-negatives (genetically female) that have endured being surrogates for the human population and now are allowed to remove their breasts and start injecting male hormones.
4 – Y-negatives, lowest in the rank.
Ember is born as an Y-negative. He had surgery done and every week is injecting himself with a cocktail of testosterone. These are expensive and there is hardely any money left for food. But all is worth it because Ember is working hard to become a male. He is convinced he should have been a masc and is also working out all the time at the gym to grow THE muscles.
Ember’s life isn’t going well. He’s fighting everyday against his body and his struggle to make a future for himself. He has his own business but has trouble finding enough costumers to pay his injectives, rent money and food. And in this order...
Jess is a masc and offers Ember a job. They are going to the outside world of Atlanta to check the sensors that monitor how earth is recovering from the pollution. Everything is inexistent and they have also these acid rains.
Jess is a different. He doesn’t redicule or harass Y-negatives and he becomes friends with Ember. Relationships between mascs and Y-negatives are not illegal but are found disgusting. Ember tries to ignore his growing feelings towards Jess. But everything changes as Jess seems to return his feelings.
During a heavy acid rainstorm they are attacked by scavengers that apparently live in the outskirts. The scavengers were out to steal their goods. Ember gets shot and to save his life, Jess drives him to the scavenger’s camp. They are treated as prisoners and Jess will be used as ransom for his controlling father. Ultimately they are saved and separated from each other. And everything is back to normal again.
Ember goes back to his job but because he hasn’t had his shots for a long time, his body has lost their muscles and he loses his beard. The time in the scavenger’s camp has Ember thinking. Are these hormones he keeps injecting doing their job or is there something in them that’s just addictive??
“I forgot what I was fighting for.”
“And what’s that?”
“Myself. My right to exist. Because if I don’t fight for it, who will?”
I enjoyed this read. It was interesting but totally fucked up. In the end Jess and Ember choose for each other and you can already see things changing. People trying to accept their relationship and I would love to know if they’ll succeed more!!
The only negative thing I would want to say is that there was no information how the world had become one gender minded. A pitty.
