#52 [2025/CBR17] Tilt by Emma Pattee

I am so excited by all of the end-of-the-year book lists coming out. I have so many books to read and so little time. I found Tilt by Emma Pattee (2025) after I saw it on both the Times and NPR's lists. The NPR blurb about this book made it sound a little more lighthearted and fun than I found it to be. However, it did keep my interest.

Annie lives in Portland. She is nine months pregnant, due any day, and picking out a crib in Ikea. She is hungry, her feet hurt, her back hurts, and she is frustrated with herself for her lack of ability to just get things done. And then a huge earthquake hits, and there is immediate chaos. Annie is initially trapped under some collapse, but is helped by the Ikea clerk who had been so annoying just a moment before. 

When the two make it out of the store, they are separated. Annie doesn't know what to do, so she decides to walk to the coffee shop where her husband is working. It is a hot, sunny day. Annie is thirsty and tired, and she sees evidence of the destruction all around her as she walks. 

The book goes back and forth through Annie's memories as she walks. How she met her husband, how she dropped out of college with big dreams of becoming a playwright, and how those dreams slowly faded away. Now she has a child on the way, and she has become terrified of what might happen to him. Her relationship with her husband is struggling because she can't talk to him about how she feels.

When Emma can't find her husband at the coffee shop, she heads towards downtown, which she has heard has been ravaged. At some point she sees the same Ikea woman, Taylor, in her bright yellow Ikea t-shirt. Taylor is walking to her daughter's school, desperate to find her. Annie and Taylor stay together until after they reach the school. I thought this was a very moving part of the book.

Afterwards, Annie heads out on her own, still trying to get downtown to find her husband. It was this part of the book that felt especially uncomfortable for me to read. It was often more and more details of Annie's pain and suffering as she walked without much purpose. I didn't understand what was pushing Annie to drag her poor body all over the city when she had no idea where her husband would be. Wouldn't he head home, if he was able? I wanted Annie to either get to a community shelter or head home herself. 

I won't go into detail about the ending, but I found it frustrating. It felt abrupt, and I wanted to know more. I'm sure that was the point of the book and may even make it more memorable, but I felt disappointed. In the end, I thought this book was both interesting and painful to read. It is well written, but I found it occasionally frustrating. I'm not sure I would recommend this one to everyone.

#31 [2025/CBR17] Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

CBR17Bingo: "Purple" - for the purple on the cover

I've read all the Hunger Games books, so when I heard there was a new one out, I knew I didn't have a choice. I put a hold on Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (2025) and read it as soon as it became available. Sunrise is a prequel to the trilogy that made Collins famous. It focuses on Haymitch Abernathy, who in later books is the drunk and disillusioned "mentor" to Katniss and Peeta.

The book takes place around the 50th Annual Hunger Games. For the 50th Games, they've decided to take twice as many tributes from each district--two boys and two girls. Haymitch is eighteen and on his last year of eligibility, but he's put his name in many times for extra food and resources. Haymitch is in love with Lenore Dove Baird, a young singer who rebels in small ways against the Capital when she can. She is a relative Lucy Gray Baird, who was one of the main characters in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Lucy had a personal connection with the current President Snow.

As was no surprise, Haymitch's name is chosen in the reaping, along with a young girl who is like a sister to Haymitch. In addition, there is a snobby girl Haymitch has always hated, and an older boy whose family is known for placing bets on the Hunger Games tributes.

At least half of the book is everything that leads up to the games, and it was pretty interesting. The way the tributes are treated, President Snow's machinations, and the hints of rebellion all come up. When Haymitch's young friend is killed in an accident, instead of dealing with the consequences or picking a new tribute, the Capital brings on an unconvincing look alike. The poor lookalike is being controlled and has obviously been tortured. It's very sad.

The part of the book focused on the Hunger Games was hard for me to read. There were so many monstrous animals created by the Capital that it felt more like a horror story. It definitely gave me nightmares, and I was happy when I finally finished. I could see the ending coming, and it was gut wrenching. I was almost annoyed by how heartless it was, but this could never be a happy story or Haymitch wouldn't be the man he is in later books.

On the whole, Sunrise on the Reaping, was interesting and fits in well with the other books. However, I feel like I'm growing out of this series. The violence and crazy animals are getting more and more disturbing to me, and the concept of the Hunger Games has been pretty thoroughly explored. I'm not sure if I'll read any more Hunger Games sequels/prequels if they happen.

#18 [2025/CBR17] Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

I've read a number of books by Celeste Ng, and I've even seen her in person at a book reading. I've enjoyed all of her books, and I usually end up reading her new books when I see they are out. However, Our Missing Hearts (2022) came out a while ago, and I somehow missed it until now. I thought Our Missing Hearts was interesting, powerful, and memorable. Because it takes place in a world not exactly like our own (although eerily familiar), it is also different from her previous books. It is probably best to go into this book knowing as little as possible. So, I don't recommend reading my review if you haven't already read the book or if you don't care about Spoilers.

Bird Gardner is twelve years old and lives alone with his father on the top floor of a student dorm. His father used to be a linguist, but now he shelves books at the University library. Bird's mother disappeared mysteriously when Bird was only nine years old, and Bird and his father never talk about her. The reader is dropped into this story and into Bird's world. At first, much like Bird who was too young when his mother left, we don't understand what happened to make her leave. But slowly we learn all that has occurred.

Bird's world is not exactly the United States that we know now. After a severe, global, economic depression, there is widespread violence and unrest. In response to this unrest, Congress passed the PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions) Act. This act pretty much requires patriotism and stifles dissent. But armed with the mandate to "protect children from environments espousing harmful views," it allows for children to be taken from anyone who dares to disagree with the government. This is generally done quietly, but it is a powerful tool for controlling any protester.

Bird's mom is a poet, and when one of her poems becomes an anthem of protest, she is perceived as a spokesperson in a conflict that she wanted no part of. All of a sudden her small, loving family is facing harassment, job insecurity, and the loss of their child. In desperation, they decide that Bird would be safer if she is out of the picture. And so she disappears. Birds mother was far from a radical rebel until her own life was so negatively impacted, and she could see how bad things really were.

Bird was quietly living his life until he received a mysterious note. He knows it's from his mother, and he is eventually able to decipher it and find her. He has very mixed feelings towards her because he loves her, but he also feels abandoned. 

Race plays an important part throughout this book. Birds mother is Chinese American and Bird is half Chinese. Because China was blamed for starting the recession, there is rampant anti-Asian discrimination in this book.

When I began reading, I didn't realize that this book was a little dystopian. So I actually googled PACT to see if it was real. It seemed like something that could be true, but I wasn't familiar with it. It turns out Ng made PACT up for the purposes of the book. However, it is not very farfetched, which makes this book feel very familiar and disturbing. It wasn't that long ago that Native American children were taken away from their families for a "better life" and Japanese Americans lost everything and were put in internment camps. In addition, anti-Asian sentiment increased just recently during COVID after China was blamed for the pandemic.

I really thought Ng did a masterful job in slowly unveiling what kind of world Bird was living in, and what his family was facing. The characterization of Bird, his parents, and even Bird's young friend who has lost her parents is fantastic. Ng does such a good job that I felt what each character was feeling, and it was often heartbreaking. Although I did not like the end of the book quite as much as the beginning, it is definitely still worth reading. Recommended.

#44 [2022/CBR14] The Selection by Kiera Cass

My favorite review I found for The Selection by Kiera Cass called it a "fairy tale for a stupid child." Kind of harsh? Maybe, maybe not. I'd never heard of this series of books until we were playing a book-related game at my wedding shower/book club where we matched up love interests from different books. I obviously did not recognize "America" and "Maxon". My friends informed me that the character names were from The Selection, a new, popular young-adult romance novel and book one in a series. I was told that it was a mix of The Bachelor and The Hunger Games, and they were easy to find in the bookstores because they all have sparkly dresses on the cover.

I figured that I have a high tolerance for mediocre young-adult novels. I'd survived The Twilight series, after all, and my curiosity won out. I put the audiobook on hold at the library. 

The Selection has 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon, with over 14,000 reviews. It's truly, very disappointing that this book is so popular. 

America Singer lives in a dystopian world where there is a rigid caste system. Everyone is born into a number that signifies a certain career. America is a "5" and she is an entertainer. She is in love with a "6" named Aspen who is some kind of server. Fooling around before marriage is strictly illegal and marrying a caste below you very rarely happens because you join the lower caste, with serious disadvantages in housing and food supply.

America is in love with Aspen, so she has no interest in the contest to become the Prince's wife. Apparently it is tradition for the Prince to find his wife from the populace, which totally makes sense, considering how obsessed the country is with their caste system. But, that is how the King found his wife, who is beloved by the people. All girls in the kingdom between 16 and 18 (?) are encouraged to apply, and 35 girls are chosen to go live in the castle for the duration of the contest.

America reluctantly applies, not even dressing up for the photo, but she is chosen [because she is stunningly beautiful] and heads to the castle. Aspen breaks up with her because he knows he can't give her a good life. America finds a couple of nicer girls and a lot of vapid, catty ones. She has no interest in Maxon and doesn't try to get along with him, but she does keep running into him and the two kind of become friends. Every once in awhile the castle is under attack by two possible sets of "rebels"--from the North and the South. There's no explanation of where they come from or what they're fighting for, but the castle is used to such attacks.

There's one girl who is particularly venomous, tearing America's dress when it's too pretty and doing other ridiculous things. She is a bad caricature, and somehow faces no consequences for her actions. I presume this is so she can continue to be an antagonist for America in the later books.

America has three maids that she likes to think she treats better than the other girls, but the maids are all simpering admirers of her and the prince and lack personalities. She doesn't have any kind of real relationship with anyone. 

The tension ratchets up as the Prince starts dismissing girls and Aspen shows up as a castle guard. Apparently he went to soldier school and proved himself well. But now America is caught in a love triangle and doesn't know what to do!

Don't worry, there is no closure in this book. The Prince narrows the contestants down to five. America has made the cut. And that's it. I made it through all the Twilight books out of curiosity, but I'm not curious enough about this series. This one will do it for me.

#35 [2020/CBR12] "Steelheart" by Brandon Sanderson

I heard of and picked up Steelheart (2013) by Brandon Sanderson because my boyfriend recommended it to me. I felt bad that he was reading all the books I recommended to him, and I wasn't getting around to those he'd recommended to me. 

Anyway, Steelheart is the first book in the Reckoners trilogy. Sanderson imagines a world similar to ours. However, shortly after Calamity (a new star?) appeared in the sky, a number of human beings began to develop superpowers. These people were called Epics. But instead of using their powers for good, like Superman, the Epics use their power to take whatever they want. They fight amongst themselves, and the normal people around them are often collateral damage.

David is eighteen years old and newly emancipated. He lives in Newcago, which is what became of Chicago after Steelheart--a very powerful and heartless Epic--took over the city. Steelheart can fly, bullets don't affect him, he can kill you with energy from his hand, and he can turn things to steel. The book begins with David and his father in a bank ten years earlier. Steelheart makes his first appearance in the city, killing everyone, including David's father. David barely survives with a lot of luck and some opportune running away.

Now that David is an adult and free of the orphanage, his one goal is to avenge his father's death. His wants to hook up with the Reckoners, a group of rebels that fight back against the epics. For a group that is incredibly secretive, David is able to find them pretty quickly. He is helpful enough that they allow him to join their efforts. Together they go after Steelheart, trying to discover his weakness in order to kill him.

On the one hand, this book was easy to read, there was a lot happening, and the action was written pretty well. On the other hand, I was disappointed in the characters and world building. The characters did not have enough detail to make them interesting. Each character had one trait that was repeated in a semi-annoying, unrealistic way. Jonathan Phaedrus (Prof) is the remote and enigmatic leader. Tia is the cola-drinking researcher. Abraham is a very strong Black, French Canadian, and Cody is a Southerner who talks about Scotland a lot. I could easily tell them apart, but none of them felt like real people. I did not care what happened to them.

Megan's characterization also immediately annoyed me. She is the hot, sexy love interest. Soon after she is introduced, she tears off her super slinky, low-cut dress to reveal a tank top and shorts. Then she breaks the heels off her high heels and runs after the bad guy. So, if the dress was as described, you couldn't wear another set of clothes underneath. It would show. Also, breaking off high heels--even if you can in the moment with your bare hands--doesn't make it easier to run after bad guys. The shoes don't turn into moccasins without heels. They are stiff and shaped oddly. You'd be better off keeping the heels on. The scene reminded me of that Mentos commercial from years ago. I decided the author did not have an understanding of the reality of women's clothing and was more interested in having his sexy love interest strip in front of David instead of acting more realistically. 

Megan was also difficult to understand. She goes back and forth between really liking David and inexplicably being really rude. This is explained somewhat later in the book, but their relationship was deeply unsatisfying. Also, the explanation just brought up a whole new slew of questions and grievances for me.

I found the lack of realism a problem throughout the book. I understand this is a fantasy with tons of beings with magical powers, but they should still act within the rules as set up in the universe. This problem was compounded by the fact that this world was not fleshed out. So, there is an entire city made of steel and it's dark all the time? That could have been fascinating, but there's so little detail that while I was reading I often forgot about the steel and darkness. Also, why does Steelheart keep his secret propaganda team on secret floors of the building that powers the city? Is it because that actually makes sense, or because it was the easiest way for the Reckoners to find out about it?

The first chapter of this book drew me in, but I found it to be a frustrating experience on the whole. I don't feel the need to read the rest of the trilogy.

#51 [2019/CBR11] "The Testaments" by Margaret Atwood

I had planned on reading The Testaments (2019) as soon as I'd heard there was a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, but I figured I'd have to wait some time before I could get it from the library. Fortunately, I found it on my library's "Lucky Day" shelf and was able to grab a copy right away. I'm very glad I read this book. I found it an interesting addition to the story. However, I think The Handmaid's Tale is still a step above. I loved the beginning and middle of The Testaments, but the end felt unrealistic and doesn't live up to the rest of the book.

The Testaments takes place fifteen years after the end of The Handmaid's Tale, where the theocracy of Gilead has taken over a good portion of the United States. Atwood tells the story from the points of view of three different women at slightly different time periods. Agnes is the daughter of a commander, growing up in as privileged a space as a young woman can in Gilead. Aunt Lydia is one of the founders of Gilead. Finally, Daisy is the youngest of them all, and she lives in the relatively free land of Canada.

Agnes tells us the story of her childhood and adolescence, looking back from a slightly different perspective as an adult. She had a very loving mother, and a distant but powerful father. Agnes even enjoyed popularity at school because of her important father. But things change after her mother dies. Her father marries a new woman, who only wants Agnes out of the house. Agnes discovers that her real mother was a handmaid, and Agnes's new stepmother is ready to marry her off to an old Commander whose wives always seem to sicken and die. The stress of Agnes's position and her lack of choices makes for some very good reading.

Aunt Lydia is a fascinating woman. She is one of the most powerful women in Gilead, and one of its founders. Aunt Lydia, as one of the few women allowed access to pen and paper, secretly writes down her story from the start of Gilead to the present day. We find out that Aunt Lydia was actually a divorced family court judge when Gilead took over. She details how she became who she is in this new society, as well as all of her current scheming.

Finally, Daisy has just turned sixteen and attends high school in Canada. She sees both protests against Gilead and "Pearl Girls," young women from Gilead who recruit women back into Gilead. She lives a pretty stable life with her parents until tragedy strikes, everything changes, and she is suddenly on the run. I noticed that Atwood threw in a line that Daisy had to keep her hair back at school. I found it very interesting that even in the "free" country, Daisy still complied with pretty arbitrary rules about her body.

I really liked reading about the different lives of these three women. Aunt Lydia had to survive the beginning of Gilead and Agnes had to try to avoid a bad marriage and retain some control over her life. Daisy's life, as well, was full of danger and excitement. It made for a good read.

***SPOILERS***
It was only near the end of the book that I was slightly disappointed. I liked Daisy's reaction when she came to Gilead and I liked Agnes's reaction to Daisy, which felt very realistic. But I was still hoping for something more.

My biggest problem was that the story began to feel unrealistic and not as grounded as I continued to read. I didn't know why Aunt Lydia required "Baby Nicole" or Daisy to come to Gilead to bring the information back to Canada in the first place. Was it because it would be bigger news if Nicole brought back the information? Did she think the sisters would have a better time making their escape together? Did Daisy and Agnes realize that Becky was going to die when they left her behind? Also, didn't most people already know at least most of what was going on in Gilead? I'm not so sure that a little more bad P.R. would make a difference in that horrible place. Couldn't Gilead just call it "fake news" and ignore it like someone else we know? I know Gilead was facing other problems as well, and this was piling on, but Aunt Lydia seemed to be working awfully hard and burning all her bridges for something that did not seem like a sure bet.

I also had some problems believing that Aunt Lydia could hear and see everything without anyone knowing. She put a camera into a statue and no one noticed her doing it or saw the hole in the statue. Also, Daisy, a sixteen-year-old girl with minimal training punched an old lady once and put her in a very convenient coma. The old woman also came out of her coma at the perfect time. I just didn't buy it.
***END SPOILERS***

Although I felt the ending of the book was comparatively weak, I still very much enjoyed reading it. Atwood is a favorite of mine and a very impressive writer.

#46 [2019/CBR11] "Severance" by Ling Ma

I decided to read Severance (2018) by Ling Ma after seeing it on NPR's Best Books of 2018 List because it looked interesting and was a little bit outside my wheelhouse. I'm up for a Dystopian novel every once in a while, but the ones I read are more like adventure stories. Severance is different. It's a little slower and more melancholy. The book mirrors our own lives in order to make us wonder how far from the sick we really are.

Candace Chen is a first-generation American living in New York City. After a period of idle wasting after college that many of us can probably relate to, she stumbles into a tolerable job publishing Bibles. It's not fulfilling work, but it pays the bills. She often works with companies in China for a number of different Bible publications.

Shen Fever begins in China; no one really knows how or why, and it is spreading around the world before people really start noticing it. Candace figured something was going wrong only after one of her neighbors and one of her coworkers is hit. The sickness causes people to get stuck doing rote tasks in a brain dead manner, unable to take care of their real needs. She gets a hint of how desperate things are in China after talking to one of her suppliers there. Candace does not get sick and is one of the few people left in the office when management offers her a lot of money to continue showing up at the office for the next couple of months. She agrees, and that's how she finds herself alone in New York City, heading up an office for a company that barely exists.

Candace had been dating a man for quite a while, but just before Shen Fever hit, he decided to move away from the city, and Candace did not want to go with him. In the end, she finally leaves New York City only when there is nothing left. She comes across a small group of other survivors, led by Bob, the IT guy. The group has some very interesting, if disturbing dynamics. They are on their way to a location where they think they might find other survivors.

***SPOILERS***
Bob turns out to be crazy and controlling. When he finds out that Candace is pregnant, he locks her up in a store in the mall in order to "protect the baby." Candace is afraid that he will kill her once she gives birth and is no longer as useful.
***END SPOILERS***

The novel is split up into three interweaving time periods. The most recent is the time that Candace spends with the small group of survivors. However, Ma also describes the onset of Shen Fever in New York City and how it caused the downfall of society. Finally, there are flashbacks to Candace's childhood, describing her growing up in the United States with her Chinese parents. Her father loved America and the choices it gave him while her mother only wanted to go back home.

I liked this book, but I'm finding it difficult to describe. The tone was sometimes a little scary, sometimes eerie, and sometimes just a story about people. Candace wasn't always the most sympathetic of characters, and the book wasn't always a joy to read. Ma seemed to have so much going on that I sometimes wondered if I was missing something that tied it all together. However, it was definitely original and memorable. I think it would be a good book for a book club.

#38 [2019/CBR11] "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

After being comfortably single for quite some time, I got myself a gentleman friend. Fortunately, he's a reader as well, and he was shocked when he found out that I had not read Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro. He immediately loaned me his copy, and I was thrilled to have another book to read. Fortunately, I really liked this book. Perhaps it didn't affect me as strongly as it did him, but I really liked the writing, and it made me think.

When a friend of mine heard what book I was going to read, she immediately blurted out some spoilerish information, which changed how I read the book. I'm not sure why she did that, but it was pretty annoying, and I don't want to do that to anyone else. So, very generally, the book is about a special school called Hailsham. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are three friends who attend this school until they are sixteen. This book is about their lives and their interpersonal relationships. If you haven't read it but want to, it's probably best to stop reading this review now.

Never Let Me Go is written from Kathy's perspective as she recounts her time at Hailsham, a unique boarding school. The world is very similar to ours, but as the kids grow up, the reader discovers that the children are clones and will be used for body parts.

When you have a story line involving this kind of injustice, with people suffering so much and dying so early, you'd expect some kind of heroic attempt at freedom. I was half expecting it to turn into that Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson movie The Island, but I was very wrong. Ishiguro focuses on the nuanced relationships between the three main characters as well as how the truth of their lives slowly permeates their minds until it is something that feels inevitable.

The three friends split up shortly after school ends, and it is near the end of their lives that they come back together, realizing the truth of their feelings and how important they are to each other. After one last, optimistic try for a respite from surgery and death, they quietly go to their fate. Part of what makes this book so troubling and sad is that Kathy and Tommy simply accept their fate in the end. Realistically, there were no heroics, just a plaintive appeal when there was no hope to begin with.

Ishiguro made his characters clones with a very limited life. This was disturbingly relatable. As kids we don't really understand the world and we think everything is possible. A lot of our knowledge happens without us really understanding where it came from. And before we know it, it's too late; our lives are stuck on a trajectory that we might not have expected, and we've let the people closest to us slip away. It's only near the end that we see how important they all are to us. This quiet book is surrounded by the melancholy of lost chances.

The only thing that didn't quite work for me was that I wondered as I read why they didn't have problems with clones rebelling--or at the very least killing themselves. The clones were facing pain and death with no possible reprieve. I would think that suicide would be an appealing option.

Anyway, this was a very memorable, moving book. I read this book ages ago now, and many details are still clear in my mind. I think I might need to read some other books by Ishiguro now.

"What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."

#28 [2017/CBR9] "The Love Interest" by Cale Dietrich

The Love Interest (2017) by Cale Dietrich was on the same "summer reading that will keep you up" list where I found Do Not Become Alarmed. What drew me in was the promise of the same, old love triangle turned on its head. The blurb for this book states:

"This sci-fi young adult novel is the answer to all of our cliché love triangle woes. Caden, the kindhearted boy-next-door, and Dylan, a brooding bad boy complete with dark poetry and a leather jacket, are in competition for the genius Juliet’s heart. The winner gets the girl, and gets to live out his life in peace. The loser gets incinerated. This fight to the death gets upended, however, when the boys start developing genuine feelings — not for Juliet, but for each other. If you’re looking for something funny, action-packed, and romantic this summer, then this is your next read."

When I began this novel, I was curious about how Dietrich was going to set up this world and interested in how she would make this unusual love triangle work. I was hoping that it would be different than the love triangles I've seen in most young-adult novels since the beginning of time. In fact, I even appreciated that Dietrich may have been poking fun at the genre by playing so explicitly with the good and bad boy stereotypes.

My main problem with this book is that it does not make any sense. Since I couldn't buy the premise, I couldn't get into the book. The characters and the plot were all over the place.

The book is from Caden's point of view and begins with him in a single, spartan room, waiting to see if he will be called out for the next target. Caden is a prisoner of a group that romantically attaches people to potentially famous or influential people. His whole life has been building to this point. And after training and significant plastic surgery, he is deemed ready to go out into the real world and woo Juliet--a high school genius. That way they have someone on the inside who knows everything about them? This knowledge is important and other people pay lots of money for it?

Every target is sent a stereotypical "bad" boy and "good" boy (for those interested in boys). They each try to win the target's affection, and the loser is murdered. Caden has been groomed as the good boy and Dylan the bad boy. The two begin a relationship as they fight over Juliet's heart.

So, how are Caden or Dylan supposed to court Juliet when they've literally grown up alone in a sterile room? Why does one of them have to die? Who would pay money to have control over a high schooler's date? Why would they assume that Juliet will stay with whomever she dates in high school? The price of this program cannot even begin to be worth whatever information they may get in the future. Why couldn't Juliet have been a better character--even if she isn't the main love interest? This story did not work for me. I don't understand why they would put it on a reading list.

#44 [2015/CBR7] "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen

My book club gets me to read a number of books I would have never read otherwise, and One Second After (2009) by William Forstchen is one of them. On the one hand, this book is a bestseller, with 4.5 stars on Amazon and over five thousand reviews! That's a good sign. On the other hand, this book begins with a foreword by Newt Gingrich. Eww, please don't mix my fiction with politics, especially politicians I don't particularly like.

One Second After is a post-apocalyptic tale set primarily in the small town of Black Mountain, North Carolina. The country is attacked by an EMP (electromagnetic pulse), which can occur when a nuclear weapon is set off a couple hundred miles above the ground. In this novel, the EMP disables anything with a computer chip, knocking out the electrical grid, radios, phones, and even most cars. In one second and with no warning, the entire country is set back hundreds of years.

It's an interesting premise, and despite Newt Gingrich, I started the book optimistically. Thirty pages in, I e-mailed one of my book club friends, despairing that I had another three hundred pages to go. The writing was painfully bad, and Forstchen took every opportunity to snidely push his political agenda while living out his own personal fantasy. The author is a history professor at a small college in North Carolina and father to one daughter. John Matherson, our protagonist, is a retired colonel turned history professor at a small college in North Carolina. His wife has recently died and he cares for his two teenage daughters. His daughters act like they are straight out of a Nick at Nite show.

Fortunately, once the EMP went off, the book picked up a little bit. Unfortunately, Forstchen focused his story on exactly what I found the least interesting. Instead of day-to-day survival, Matherson becomes something of a de facto leader for the town, and they dig into the business of who is allowed to stay in town, restrictions on food, dealing with the dying, and protecting their town from roving bands of criminals. I was much more interested in how Matherson's family was getting food. About two thirds into the book, Matherson finally mentions that he's been hunting for food, but he's so busy running around town, I have a hard time believing it. There are a lot of fascinating survival and ethical issues that come up when a society is trying to continue with scarce resources and outside threats. Unfortunately, Forstchen is very inconsistent in his world view and it's hard to take anything away from it.

I did not like John Matherson. Although he is written as the unabashed hero, he is an arrogant asshole. He smokes (personal pet peeve), orders people around, and ignores his own rules. Everyone has to give up their vehicles for the good of the town, but Matherson--the big man he is--says the Sheriff will take his car over his dead body. The first full day of the EMP, he charges into the Mayor's office, ordering her around and demanding breakfast. SPOILERS His sixteen-year-old daughter falls in love with a neighbor boy. Instead of teaching her about safe sex, he refuses to talk to her about it. When she winds up pregnant, Forstchen acts like Matherson is some kind of hero for forgiving her. Also, it was almost creepy to read a book where I imagined the author as the protagonist, writing a story where his daughter becomes pregnant at sixteen, her boyfriend tragically dead from a huge battle, so his daughter and her new child live indefinitely with him. Also, John Matherson meets a sexy nurse on the road into town at the time of the EMP. It was not romantic. "It's an insult if you check her out, an insult if you don't." (76) [Um, no. It's creepy if you're an asshole who does not respect boundaries.] Fortunately the sexy nurse liked that Matherson was checking her out.

I feel like I'm having a hard time conveying just how irritated this book made me. In addition to the many typos and the general tone, here are some specific instances that had me shaking my head. I had to return the book from the library, so some of these quotes may be paraphrased.

-"the old-boy network, though disdained as politically incorrect, did exist, and it did help at times when needed." (18) Yes, the whole point of the old-boy network is that they help other people also in that network. Thank you for explaining that that to me. I'm not sure I'd call it politically incorrect but an example of how those not in the old-boys network are often working at a disadvantage.

-"a woman with a gun--the most dangerous thing." (54) Really? Right after you tell a story about how you were shooting warning shots with a rifle at a bunch of armed hoodlums when you were a drunk college student. That's some responsible gun ownership right there.

-"global warming--though a lot say it wasn't a threat" (67) How is this even relevant?

-"all those peace loving liberal arts colleges are dying because they don't have the weapons to protect themselves." Nice try, Forstchen. Try reading World War Z, where the Claremont Colleges totally kicked some zombie ass.

It's frustrating because it could have been good.

#29 [2015/CBR7] "Wool" by Hugh Howey

I wanted to read Wool (2013) by Hugh Howey after I saw it in an airport bookstore, but I had to read it when it became the next book for my book club. I've read what feels like a little too much dystopian fiction lately but this one looked intriguing and I was looking forward to it.

The entire population is kept safe from the toxic environment outside by a huge, underground silo, falling 150 floors into the ground below. The population is divided clearly into classes with distinct living spaces and jobs, and the population is strictly guarded by rules overshadowed with the penalty of death. If someone breaks the rules, they are forced out of the safety and community of the silo. The book begins with Sheriff Holston asking to go outside, basically asking for death.

Juliette, a smart, independent, and proactive woman who works down in the bowels of the silo with the mechanics and with no previous law experience is brought up to the top floors to be the next sheriff. She stumbles into a number of mysteries and corruption as she tries to do her job--learning that there is more to her world than she previously knew.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book. It set itself apart from other Dystopians with great characters, mystery, excitement, and believable technical and mechanical details. The overlay of class differences and controlling society was fascinating. However, there were a number of details that either didn't make sense to me or I couldn't buy. It's possible that some of these are explained more fully in the later novels, but it did take me out of the book to some extent.

SPOILERS FOLLOW as I complain about the details:
First, I couldn't understand what was making the condemned clean the lenses of the camera and why that was even important. Sure, they are deceived into believing that the world is clean and beautiful again, but why would that make them clean the camera. Do they think their cleaning is going to make the silo see what they're seeing? Do they think that the world changed that much since the last cleaning? Why do they care about the silo at all after they've been thrown out. Sure, I can see some people choosing to clean, but making it a rule that determines whether or not there will be rebellion didn't make sense to me.

Second, I couldn't understand the motivation for building the silos and destroying the world in the first place. I guess you can simply say those guys were crazy, but the book would have more punch if it were more believable. So, some crazy leaders in America were mad that they had lost their superpower status. Their solution is to destroy the entire world and put up a small percentage of the population in separated silos? Most of the unrest and questioning came from the lies and injustice of the silo keepers. People revolted because of the treatment of Juliette, not because people were desperate to die in the horrible atmosphere outside.

I was also a little disappointed with the love story between Juliette and her guy. They barely even had a conversation before they were devoted to each other. It wasn't much to go on, and it didn't do much for me.

Finally, I was curious. Why overalls? Even for judges? Are they really the most practical choice in a world with limited resources?

All right, that's a lot of complaining, and I don't take any of it back, but Howey is a talented writer and Wool was fast paced, mysterious and exciting with some great characters. I'm not sure yet if I'll be reading the rest of this series, but I did enjoy this one.

#25 [2015/CBR7] "The Girl With All the Gifts" by M.R. Carey

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

I can't remember what first led me to The Girl With All the Gifts (2014) by M.R. Carey, but the above blurb sucked me in, and I like to get out of my reading comfort zone every now and again with some less-read genres. Horror is something I usually avoid, so this was a good book for me.

What I didn't realize going in, is that this is a zombie book. The world is desperately fighting between the "hungries" and the uninfected in England. The story begins from Melanie's point of view, a little girl, and a very unique hungry. She is smart and curious and loves her teacher, Miss Justineau, more than anyone. The cast is rounded out with a battle-hardened Sergeant Parks, a results-oriented Doctor Caroline Caldwell, and the young, untested soldier.

The story moves in unexpected directions, staying suspenseful throughout. All of the main characters are three-dimensional and flawed. I could understand their motivations, and even though they were technically all on the same team, their conflicting goals kept tensions high and the story fascinating. This book was violent, unique, and disturbing but worth the read.

***SPOILERS***
The ethics of Dr. Caldwell using and torturing smart, hungry children to learn more and potentially find a cure for what's going on was fascinating and disturbing. Dr. Caldwell is heartless, almost to the point of crazy, but what if she were able to save thousands and millions of lives? What price is that worth? And how do we determine the value of lives that we deem less than human, whether they can feel pain or not?

The ending was also not what I expected and horrific in it's own way. On the one hand, Melanie turned out to be much worse than the humans feared, personally causing the end of the human race--a true horror. On the other hand, Melanie is smart and pragmatic. It was probably going to happen anyway. She was acting perfectly rationally from her perspective. Is it bad that the world is evolving? Only to those being left behind. And Miss Justineau will survive for the time being, but even as open-minded as she was in the classroom, this is not a world she wanted.

The only parts of the book that bothered me were when I felt that Carey had his characters do something beyond stupid in order to further the plot. I felt this the most strongly when Miss Justineau shot off the flare because she was worried about Melanie. Sure, it worked out all right in the end, but with the information she knew, some semblance of self preservation should have prevented her from doing it.

#23 [2015/CBR7] "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner

The Maze Runner (2010) by James Dashner sounded kind of interesting at first. Mysterious mazes and unexplained girls showing up--both curious and exciting. But then I read a couple of reviews and decided it wasn't worth reading. That decision held until my book club picked The Maze Runner for our next book. I could have easily skipped the reading. We usually spend more time catching up than talking about the book anyway, but my conscience wouldn't let me slack off.

I should preface this review with the fact that I came into it with a bad attitude. I'd already heard it wasn't a good book and was only reading it because I was being forced into it. For what it's worth, most members of my book club liked it. I think the mystery and excitement distracted them from the writing, although one of my friends said it was much worse when she went back to read it a second time.

Spoilers ahead--just in case. So, Thomas wakes up in an elevator that takes him up to a mysterious glade with about fifty teenage boys. He remembers almost nothing about his life before the maze. The boys are surrounded by huge walls that open during the day, leading out into a giant maze. Thomas quickly becomes acquainted with the run of the place. The boys are sent supplies once a week, a new boy is sent every month, the weather is always perfect, and the boys have split up into different work groups, including: farming, slaughtering, building, etc. to keep up their survival. One of these groups is called Runners. The runners go out into the maze every day to record changes in it and try to find a way out.

The boys' lives in this maze world has been pretty predictable for the last two years, but after Thomas arrives, things begin to change. The next day a girl arrives! And then she promptly faints and falls into a coma. But then the supplies stop coming and the sun turns off. When the walls don't close and the monsters in the maze start coming in the night to take and kill one boy per night, the urgency to find a way out increases.

I had a number of problems with this book, but my main issues boil down to the lack of characters' development or motivation, and the lack of--or confusing--world building. We don't know anything about Thomas except that he is very smart, the loss of his memory is weird, and almost all of his actions are either motivated by nothing or weird thoughts pushing him in that direction. He feels like he should be a runner because it feels familiar. He thinks he should tell the others what he knows, but he doesn't.

It might have been interesting to see how 25 boys thrown into such an odd situation manage to turn their world into such an orderly and productive place (which I thought was kind of unrealistic). But we never see how this maze society was built, It felt lazy to not give the readers some background or explanation.

In addition, Theresa's character and her relationship to Thomas have no substance. She shows up, mumbles some words and faints. Thomas likes her because she's beautiful, she seems familiar, and they can talk to each other psychically. They don't get to know each other, they are simply immediately attached.

Finally, this book makes no sense. I have not, and will not be reading the rest of the books in this series. It is possible some of my questions are resolved in later books, but we did touch on the later books in book club, and it didn't shed any light on what the hell was going on. Where exactly is this miles-long maze? Thomas rode up in an elevator for a half hour before coming out. Someone has control of the climate and the entire sky. Was a maze at least 25 miles in diameter built in the sky? Is the rest of the world living underground? The monsters in the maze made no sense to me, part rolling slug, and part metal arms with needles and saws. They can climb walls but apparently can't climb the walls that would get them into the glade at night. What is the point of the grievers and the "antidote" besides the vague "it was part of the test?" Apparently this incredible "experiment" was done to test the boys and see how their brains were different. Isn't there an easier way to test brains than to build this whole, ridiculous thing?

#21 [2015/CBR7] "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel

Once again, I find myself having to catch up with the rest of the universe, finally picking up Station Eleven (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel after its been reviewed, discussed and bookclubed by the Cannonball crew more times than I can remember. I guess it's not surprising that I first heard of Station Eleven on Cannonball. And despite some doubts and disinterest when I initially heard it was a dystopian story about a traveling Shakespeare Company, which sounded weird, it was the positive Cannonball reviews that convinced me to read it.

Because I read this one quite awhile ago and am having problems summing up this book in a couple of sentences, I will rely on Amazon:
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end. 

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.

When I finished this book, I was tempted to go back and search out the reviews and discussions I had missed in order to get a better idea of what I had just read. But I resisted because I wanted to digest this novel on my own before having someone explain it to me. Minor spoilers follow for the two of you who haven't read Station Eleven yet.

Station Eleven was very well written and very interesting to read. The characters were real, sympathetic, and relatable. Despite the plethora of dystopian literature falling off bookshelves these days, Station Eleven is original and much more complex than a simple disaster book. It feels like a book where the relationships are more important than the survival aspect, which is unusual. Also, St. John Mandel has a remarkable understanding of  the pre-epidemic world and the nuances and influences that push it.

However, when I finished, I was a surprised that there was not more cohesion between the various characters. I assumed these disparate story lines would come together, the characters would meet, and they would understand their connection. This is not a complaint. Not tying everything up into a tidy bow is  more realistic. It was simply unexpected and made me think more about what I had just read.

The most memorable relationship in this story for me was between Arthur and his second wife, Miranda. Miranda's relationship with her artist boyfriend, subsequent marriage to Arthur and her discomfort of Hollywood, followed by her devastating divorce felt very real.. Arthur obviously loves her but acts callously human at the same time. Yet, what does Arthur and Miranda have to do with the epidemic? Sure, all of the other characters are tied in to Arthur in some way, but both Miranda and Arthur are dead by the time the fight for survival really begins. Arthur is perhaps one of the last humans to be untouched by the plague, to leave the world in blissful ignorance of what was coming. Perhaps Mandel was using him as a tool to highlight the differences between pre- and post-epidemic worlds.

Although I've read way too many dystopian novels these days, and they just keep coming, I really enjoyed Station Eleven. Thoughtful and well written, I can see why it's been so popular. "Survival is insufficient."

#18 [2014/CBR6] "The Giver" by Lois Lowry

The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry is by all accounts an excellent book. It won the Newbery Medal in 1994, and there are many reviews and comments on Cannonball dedicated to singing its praises. Now, I thought this was a good book, but something kept me from really feeling involved with the characters and the story. At first, I thought I'd been reading too many young-adult novels and was getting burned out (which was probably true), but I think there's more to it.

The Giver follows the story of Jonas as he turns twelve years old in a world that has abolished pain and misery in exchange for shallow emotions, lack of knowledge, and lack of brilliance. This new world also has stifling rules that force equality and serenity. Jonas is chosen to be the next keeper of society's memories. As Jonas works with the previous keeper and learns more about his world and what he's missing, his perception changes. In the end, Jonas must decide whether to conform to the life he grew up in or reject it for hopefully something more.

The ability to avoid pain and misery seems wonderful at first. But what would you be willing to give up to avoid pain and misery: love, self determination, family, choice? It's an interesting question and encourages the reader to to think about the world in a different way. The theme reminded me a bit of the line from Six Feet Under when Peter Krause said something along the lines of: people die so we can appreciate life. Unfortunately in real life, in order to feel the good stuff, you have to feel the bad stuff, too.

I liked Jonas, I liked the story, and I liked some of the questions it brought to mind. The main problem I had was that I kept getting distracted by the details. I felt the questions brought up were mainly philosophical in nature and not particularly realistic. What freaked me out so much when I read The Handmaid's Tale is that I could almost see it happening in real life. Lowry's world, on the other hand, was more difficult to understand and contained many more unanswered questions. How did this world come about? Why was Jonas able to see color before his training? Why would memories stick with one person and travel the way they do? Wouldn't families start caring about each other after such close proximity, or were emotions bred out of them? ***SPOILER*** Why would that world not want twins? Isn't killing a healthy baby worse than having two people that look alike? It turns out that important people in Jonas's life are actually killers (his parents, his red-headed girlfriend--once she gets her job), why do they accept this without major issue? Again, have their emotions been bred out of them or is it fear of retaliation? Was it only knowledge that made Jonas different or something else? His eye color? Without understanding this and with the more mystical elements of magical memories transferred by touch and death, I never felt too attached.

#16 [2014/CBR6] "Champion" by Marie Lu

I read a quick palette cleanser, The Governess Affair (2013) by Courtney Milan, before getting into the third and final installment of my latest young-adult dystopian trilogy: Champion (2013) by Marie Lu. The Governess Affair was a little short for its own review, but I will allow myself a short diversion for this little novella: I've heard only good things about Courtney Milan, but for whatever reason, her stories don't resonate with me. This one, especially, I didn't really enjoy. The whole premise revolved around an uncomfortable rape, one where the protagonist feels guilty because she didn't fight. Ugh, not really what I want to read in a romance novel, but the writing was good and I liked some parts.

Anyway, back to Champion. I was already getting a little tired of all this young adult drama, and the second book in this trilogy didn't help. I wanted to know what would happen, but I continued to lose interest throughout the third book. It wasn't bad, but like I said in my review of the second book, I didn't care enough about the material or the characters to keep me satisfied for three books.

One of my problems was that Lu stuffed so much into her last couple of books that I stopped caring about anything. The first book kept my interest with the introduction of a new world and the charismatic characters of June and Day. The story was tight and focused on the growing relationship between June and Day and their personal struggles. I still feel some moral ambiguity would add some dimension to the story, but I still enjoyed it.

***MAJOR SPOILERS***
But then, in the third book:
*There is a love triangle with June, Day and the autocratic leader of the Republic
*There is a love triangle with June, Day, and Tess (Day's street friend)
*Day has months to live because of a brain tumor like thing
*The plague has spread to the Colonies
*June becomes the second in command of the country
*Day leads some Patriots against the Colonies, four people crippling the entire offensive
*Day is contacted by the Colonies' leader to help sway the people of the Republic
*Tess comes down with the plague and is dying
*The Colonies get together with Africa and invades the Republic
*The Republic has to use Day's little brother for more testing to find a cure for the plague (it is not explained why this is so tortuous. You'd think all they'd have to do is get some blood from him, but it was made out to be much worse.)
*There is unnecessary drama between Day and June because Day can't forget that June found him, which led to the death of his family--even though her family was killed, she thought he'd killed her brother, and she had no idea what was going to happen
*the woman responsible for killing Day and June's families has escaped, is trying to overthrow the country as well as kill Day and June

I wish Lu had chosen to focus on one or two of the above plot points and really developed them. I was pretty sure that everything was going to turn out all right in the end, so it just meant wading through all the drama to find out how it happened.

Again, I may have been more forgiving if I haven't already been reading so many other young adult novels, but I watched Catching Fire for the first time while I was reading this book and it reminded me of how much more I liked The Hunger Games trilogy (except for the last book.)

#15 [2014/CBR6] "Prodigy" by Marie Lu

There was no question that I would be quickly moving on to the second book of my latest young adult, dystopian trilogy--Prodigy (2013) by Marie Lu. I need to read all three before our book club meeting, and the first one was more interesting than I expected. I wasn't disappointed in this second book, either. Now, it's always somewhat challenging to review the second book in a trilogy. You can't say much of anything about the plot without revealing spoilers from the first book, and it's hard to have definitive ideas about the book until you know how it all ends. Therefore, beware of spoilers for the rest of this review.

The story begins again right where it left off, with June and Day, now both fugitives from the Republic running away together. June and Day find themselves, out of necessity, thrust into the world of the Patriots--the rebel group fighting against the Republic. The two begin to work for the patriots, and they are split up as they fulfill the tasks required of them by the Patriots. June lets herself be captured by the Republic in order to get close to and influence the new Elector while Day does what he does best and helps create havoc against the Republic. There are some twists and turns, and June and Day have some tough decisions, but in the end, they seem to make the right ones and the final book is set up nicely.

I don't really have any specific complaints with this book. The plot continues to be entertaining, and I like the characters. The world expanded as we learned more about the Patriots and the Colonies, but these new details did not feel forced or out of place.

I think the real problem is that I've been reading too many of these young-adult dystopian books and they're wearing a little thin. I can get into these teenage, dramatic love triangles, but after awhile they all morph into the same thing. Sometimes I'd rather just read a straight romance novel. I'm not sure if I'll get it any time soon, but I'm craving something a little deeper and a little more meaningful. These stories are interesting, but I don't know if they warrant a trilogy. They might be better whittled down into one, longer book.

#13 [2014/CBR6] "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card

I wasn't very excited about reading Ender's Game (1977) by Orson Scott Card. Nothing in the cover appealed to me. The only thing I knew about it is that it had something to do with turning boys into soldiers and that the author is apparently homophobic. But I'd also heard it was an award-winning classic. The recently released movie and the fact that even my little brother had read it was beginning to make me feel left out. So I decided to check it out as a necessary part of my cultural education. And it was really good. I was surprised by how this book affected me and how much it disturbed me.

Ender Wiggins is only six when he's brought to Battle School, but they've been watching him for most of his life and hoping that he's the one who can lead them to victory. Ender's entire life is calculated to make him into the most courageous, efficient, and creative leader. The fact that he's an unhappy child and they may be ruining his life are secondary concerns to the survival of the human species. Test after test and challenge after challenge, Ender is continually pushed beyond what some seem to think he can endure. Although there is a lot of physical stress in the Battle Room, most of the stress Ender deals with is emotional. He is isolated and lonely. He can never trust or depend on anyone. The tragedy of it is that Ender's such a sweet boy, and he's turned, unwillingly, into a killer.

I've read a lot of books that I've loved until the end, but the author falters and isn't able to tie it all together in a satisfying way. This was not the case with Ender's Game. Not only was I surprised by the twist, but Card managed to tell enough of Ender's story for some bittersweet closure and enough mystery to allow a number of possibilities for the future.

I couldn't help but compare Ender's Game to the other young adult, dystopian novel I just finished reading, Legend. I liked Legend and its characters and was thoroughly entertained, but it just wasn't as memorable or disturbing. Sure, there's plenty of violence in Legend, but it was never as hard hitting or emotional. Sometimes it felt more like a vehicle for the main characters' love story. In addition, there was very little moral ambiguity or questions of right or wrong. June had to decide if she was going to turn her back on the life she knew, but (SPOILER--for Legend) that decision was made a lot easier as soon as she found out that "the bad guys" were responsible for killing her entire family. And this is where Ender's Game excelled. Obviously, it's distressing to take a six-year-old boy and use him as a tool in a war. But do the ends justify the means? If all of humanity hangs in the balance, then maybe the suffering of one child is worth it. Yet there's also the question of whether the attack was even necessary.

All in all, this was a very good book. I am also planning on reading Ender's Shadow, since I enjoyed Ender's Game so much, and because it's on a list I found of great young-adult novels. As far as Card's homophobia, I wish he were more open-minded and accepting of others. I suspect his Mormon upbringing is at fault. You'd think someone sensitive enough to be able to empathize so well with the lonely and isolated Ender could be more accepting. Yet... "Ender turned to the door. A boy stood there, tall and slender, with beautiful black eyes and slender lips that hinted at refinement. I would follow such beauty said something inside Ender." (109) Interesting.

#11 [2014/CBR6] "Legend" by Marie Lu

I really thought I would be taking a break from young-adult Dystopian trilogies. They seem to be all over the place these days, and after my disappointment in the last two books of the Divergent trilogy, I wasn't craving any more. But then my book club decided we'd read the Legend (2011) trilogy by Marie Lu for March. I wasn't too excited initially, but dutifully picked up the audio cd from the library (shorter waitlist). Not surprisingly, it didn't take me long to get into it, and soon I was sitting in my garage, waiting to hear about the life and death adventures of June and Day.

The dystopian world in this novel feels almost immediately familiar, although I assume we will discover more of the particulars of this world in the next two books. June and Day are almost Romeo and Juliet-like characters, teenagers living within the Republic. June is part of the wealthy elite, she is a prodigy, the only person to earn a perfect score on her "Trial" exams, forced on everyone at the age of eleven. Day, on the other hand, is a street rat. Grown up wanting in the poor sector of town, Day failed his Trial but escaped the consequences and has been running amok and causing havoc for the federation ever since. It is when June and Day find themselves together and June starts learning the truth about the Federation that everything changes.

This was an entertaining read. The characters feel almost like super heroes. Both are incredibly smart, agile, and accomplished. I got the feeling that they were capable of almost anything. Their only weaknesses seemed to be their love for their families. This makes for an exciting read, but they're a little less relatable than less impressive characters.

I'd like to keep this review pretty short. I'm reserving [most of my] judgment until I finish the whole trilogy. I did enjoy this one and I'm hopeful for the next two books in the series, but I swear, this is the end of the young-adult dystopians...as soon as I read Ender's Game and The Maze Runner.