Why I bought it? Searching for something new at the bookstore, the cover caught my attention. I read the blurb on the back and was intrigued. Sold.
Synopsis: I don't want to give too many spoilers because part of the fun of this book is the unraveling of the details. In the first few pages you know pretty much everything here. Everyone 15 years old and older disappear. They are just gone. Poof. The kids are left to deal with daily life on their own with the danger of bullies becoming dictators, mutating animals, starvation, neglect, and some kids (evil and good) developing powers. It's a world gone mad. It reminded me of Lord of the Flies except this one includes everyone 14 and under. Babies too.
What I thought? It started out extremely well and after a while got incredibly gross (which for me was okay), then it got bogged down in all the side stories the author included. The concept was great, the execution flawed--at times a page turner, at times a bore. I checked out ratings overall on BN and Amazon thinking I was being overly harsh, and maybe I am, but I found the prose clunky in lots of spots, and the plot meandering. Some people loved it (mostly younger readers as far as I could tell). I liked it enough that I have bought the second, but I'm not dying to read it. I'm just sort of interested. I'd like to see where the story goes, but in researching a bit for this review I found out there are going to be at least 4 books in this series. If the writing doesn't get better, I'm not sure I'll be able to stand it. I'll withhold that judgement until after I've read the second one: Hunger.
My Rating: *** out of 5
Cleanness Score: 6 out of 10, no sex and little language, but the violence is high, very high.
10 comments:
This is good to know, my daughter was considering picking it up after seeing it at the store but she has a super-low-violence-tolerance-level (like her mama). We want to like it, it just freaks us out.
I'll tell her and let her decide. Thanks for another fantastic review!
This book is sitting on TBR shelf, maybe I'll move it to the bottom.
I hadn't heard of this book. Thanks for mentioning it. I like that you describe what caught your eye in the first place as well!
Great review! Sounds like a fascinating concept.
I do like the premiss. Great review.
I've seen this one but haven't picked it up yet. It sounds kind cool. Thanks for the review!
Yeah, everyone, the concept is pretty cool and the book was engrossing at times, but the writing sometimes brought me out of the story a little too often for my taste.
I bought this book earlier this year and read it. I had a lot of the same feelings. It didn't meet my expectations. The concept was awesome. He writes well, but I agree a lot of the book could be cut, and some parts were a little out-there for me. Like a bad dream or a drug trip. And for me, sci-fi has to make a little bit of sense, even if its sci-fi. I probably won't pick up Hunger.
Wow. This is quite interesting, because I loved this book. As in I love it so much I'm not giving it away. Goes to show we're all different :)
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