Author: Marie Lu
# of Pages: 320 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Romance
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Synopsis: What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.
Review: Oh jeez. This is going to take a while.
The cover looks fantastic. Very clean, neat, and futuristic looking. This is why I bought the book; the cover's awesome. But I should have learned my lesson from Grave Mercy, the other time I read a book based on it's cover. I should have read the back.
My rant begins with the Trials. What are these things, anyway? Lu barely explains them in the beginning, and, although she provides a little more depth later, it's still not very clear what EXACTLY they are.
And what's up with these names? Day and June? Lu must have been staring at the calendar when writing. Day and June are our two lovely protagonist. The whole book is written in first person, but switches POVs ever chapter. I don't know, some authors can pull it off. But not Lu. No way. Absolutely not. It seems to me that Lu is an amateur writer who can't tell a story without having TWO people telling the story instead of one. Do you get what I'm trying to say? It was an bad decision as an author to use two points of view.
"The minutes drag on. I tuck my slingshot away and play a few rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors with Tess. (I don't know why, but she's crazy good at this game.)" -Page 9How old are they, five? It's sounds like they play Rock, Paper, Scissors a lot. WHY ARE THEY WASTING PRECIOUS TIME DOING THAT WHEN THEY SHOULD BE CONCENTRATION ON THEIR SURVIVAL?!
Metias, June's brother, has to be bipolar. One moment, he's got a stick up his butt and is all mad at June (because she misbehaved), but the moment someone agrees with him, he's all "Don't be so hard on her!" Can't look like the bad guy, huh, Metias?
"When I was seven years old...I dipped a ball of crushed ice in to a can of gasoline, let the oil coat the ice in a thick layer, and lit it. Then I launched it with a slingshot through the window of our local police headquarters...They never found out who did it...I had committed my first perfect crime." -Page 22.
Wow. The security of the police headquarters must be really bad or something because I REALLY doubt that a seven year old can commit and so called "perfect" crime without get caught.
Y'know, all this complaining about the rich/poor people really gets on my nerves. Sure, you might think that the poor are filthy and the rich are snotty, but don't you have anything better to think about?
I found it surprising that no one knew the faintest detail of what Day looked like. He's committed so many crimes, you'd think they'd at least get a better guess at his skin color.
I noticed all of these points mentioned about in the first eighty pages. Now onto the rest.
I wish the characters would stop talking TO me. Just tell me your story and go away. Here's an example of when June asked me a question:
"How did he break into this bank in ten seconds, with four armed guards at the back entrance?"I don't know, June. How DID he do that? Why don't YOU tell ME? It's your story, isn't it? So you should tell it! This is all really, really stupid. That's the thing; Lu tries to make her characters equally smart. Which, I guess, makes sense SINCE THEY'RE BOTH EQUALLY STUPID!!!
Day is constantly meeting his brother (John) behind the house. I'm surprised that his mom doesn't question his actions. I mean, John mysterious gets some...stuff for Eden to help him recover and his mom doesn't push John to reveal where he got it from? Speaking of Eden, Day thinks that he's Eden's only chance of survival when he's not. Eden could recover on his own! Anythings possible.
I found it incredibly unrealistic that June could just spend, what, three days in a poor sector and suddenly WHAM! Your an instant beggar. This is, of course, how June meets Day. And it makes me sick, sick, sick! They have that instant attraction thing, and Day trusts her almost immediately. I knew he was a fool, but I thought he would have a little common sense. And that kissing thing...it's just not right.
So, yeah. If you couldn't tell, I didn't like this book. It might be good for, like, fourth graders, or something. But not me, no way.
---
Read the first draft here!
No comments:
Post a Comment