Lynie has had seven different fathers, and all of them have had one thing in common – they made their living fighting to the death.  In the near future, neo-gladiatorial battles are a form of entertainment, and people pay money to see people maimed and killed.  Lyn and her special-needs brother Thad have seen six of their fathers die in combat, and things don’t look good for the seventh, Tommy.  When Tommy is killed too, life is made worse when a strange rule will likely force Lyn into a marriage with the very man who killed her father – unless she kills him first.  Haines’ high-concept novel layers a culture of violence for the sake of entertainment onto our own culture, and blends together themes of familial loyalty, celebrity, and horrific brutality.  While the concept is fascinating at first glance, Haines’s writing is sometimes muddled and over-wrought, and the point of the story is often unclear.  The book could appeal to fans of Suzanne Collins, but the relatively slow pace of the plot and the internal, psychological nature of the story are contradictory to the way the book is marketed, and may disappoint readers.