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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
It's been a really long time since I picked up a book that I couldn't put down. If you liked the Matched series at all you'll LOVE this. I liked the first book of the Matched series but the rest were boring and forgettable. This is so much better. Oliver's writing is so detailed, the way she describes the landscape and the way she traces Lena's thought processes really puts you into her POV more than just simply using first person. The concept of seeing love as a disease is so foreign to us but Oliver is really good at helping the reader visualize what it would feel like to be indoctrinated that way from birth.
I listened to this book on my commute. I really enjoyed every minute of it, except maybe night of the raid. If I was reading it in book form, I would have definitely skipped over the one gory part.
I loved the building suspense and hope Lena's story is continued.
I loved the building suspense and hope Lena's story is continued.
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I can’t even give a rating. I just finished the book. What an ending. If I was a crier I’d be crying. Oh Alex
A dystopia wherein the US has classified love as a disease and gives everyone a kind of lobotomy ('the cure') after graduation to remove it and protect the population from its dangerous and sometimes violent impulsivity and promote social stability. There is one brief mention of the procedure also eliminating 'unnaturalness' (homosexuality) and causing some to find the idea of parenthood distasteful since romance and sexuality aren't the only kinds of love 'cured', but that's not really expanded on in this volume. The protagonist, Lila, and her best friend are in their final few months before they get their procedure and choose a future spouse (from a list of approved matches), when her friend starts acting strangely and Lila slowly starts to discover that maybe the way their society works isn't as neat and tidy (and truthful) as she always assumed. Lila herself is more nervous than most in this society where anyone can be reported by anyone for exhibiting suspicious behaviour, because of the skeletons in her family closet (her mother's suicide due to a failure of her cure) that put her under closer scrutiny than the average person since childhood. She herself always looked forward to being cured so she could finally be like everyone else and stop feeling this fear.
Parental guidance report: there is some kissing, but no sex or heavy makeout scenes; this is not a case of 'teens discover glorious rebellion in a storm of passionate coitus', so you can relax about that.
It was a decent dystopian story, but I think it could have been stronger if the 'cure' was less heavily focused on love alone and gave more weight to other 'risks' like crime and violence (which is mentioned here and there, but usually attributed to infection by love). It would have been more realistic to me if the cure was promoted more heavily as a cure for violence and criminality (like many political groups emphasize tough-on-crime measures), with love as more of a side concern rather than the front and center main issue (more like 'love is this messy nuisance that happens to be a good indicator of the kind of emotional volatility that leads to crime and violence which is why we watch out for it, plus by the way isn't it nice you don't have to deal with the hassle of romance anymore thanks to our lovely sorta-eugenics-y matching system?'). Instead it was the other way around, only mentioning in passing that 'oh yeah, also crime is down'.
Parental guidance report: there is some kissing, but no sex or heavy makeout scenes; this is not a case of 'teens discover glorious rebellion in a storm of passionate coitus', so you can relax about that.
It was a decent dystopian story, but I think it could have been stronger if the 'cure' was less heavily focused on love alone and gave more weight to other 'risks' like crime and violence (which is mentioned here and there, but usually attributed to infection by love). It would have been more realistic to me if the cure was promoted more heavily as a cure for violence and criminality (like many political groups emphasize tough-on-crime measures), with love as more of a side concern rather than the front and center main issue (more like 'love is this messy nuisance that happens to be a good indicator of the kind of emotional volatility that leads to crime and violence which is why we watch out for it, plus by the way isn't it nice you don't have to deal with the hassle of romance anymore thanks to our lovely sorta-eugenics-y matching system?'). Instead it was the other way around, only mentioning in passing that 'oh yeah, also crime is down'.
I really liked the story. It kind of reminded me of the Hunger Games minus the games and the love story is the main focus. The only thing I didn't like was how it was a little too descriptive sometimes. Like it was over descriptive at times and I was thinking, "Get to the point..." But other than that, I loved it!
Wow! Okay, it took 225 pages to get into the climax of the story but I didn't realize then that this book it basically the set-up for a sequel and man it ended with a BANG!!! I hate that I will have to wait a year to find out what happens... I love the message in this book though. I alway say that the media, it seems, is always trying to instill fear into the people and that we should alway ask questions to verify the sources with other sources because you really never know when the information provided is true or not. It sure seems there is always an agenda behind the words a lot of the time. Go with your heart and what you know to be true!!! Like Romeo and Juliet, love never dies.
The dystopian premise may be wearing thin for me right now but this seemed particularly weak. Set in a society where falling in love has been determined to be an illness and eliminated through a medical procedure, the heroine predictably abandons her firmly held beliefs about conforming and falls in love over a matter of days immediately prior to her scheduled procedure. It falls flat and tries too hard.
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3,5 stars
After having this on my TBR pile for over 4 years, I am proud to say that I've finally started this series. I didn't go into it with any high expectations, as my excitement kind of went a bit away a while ago, and I was mildly surprised at how good it actually is. I especially loved the writing style and the whole concept of the world they were living in. It is terrifying to think about a world where no one loves each other, not even family. The characters were well-developed and there were a good amount of amazing chapters in this book. Definitely not a bad start to this series. The only reason that it is getting 3,5 stars instead of 4 or higher, is just because I don't feel too strongly about this series yet. It's a tad bit too predictable, which I did expect, but it didn't make anything particularly surprising. A good read nevertheless, though.
After having this on my TBR pile for over 4 years, I am proud to say that I've finally started this series. I didn't go into it with any high expectations, as my excitement kind of went a bit away a while ago, and I was mildly surprised at how good it actually is. I especially loved the writing style and the whole concept of the world they were living in. It is terrifying to think about a world where no one loves each other, not even family. The characters were well-developed and there were a good amount of amazing chapters in this book. Definitely not a bad start to this series. The only reason that it is getting 3,5 stars instead of 4 or higher, is just because I don't feel too strongly about this series yet. It's a tad bit too predictable, which I did expect, but it didn't make anything particularly surprising. A good read nevertheless, though.
I love this book so much. If you know me at all, then you know how obsessed I am with the dystopian genre by and large. First off the concept of this dystopian is basically love is illegal and any "hysterical" feelings/ any feelings really. And this idea fascinates me. This first book did everything it could to suck me in and it achieved it big time. It's one of those books capable of making you feel everything the main character is feeling. In the beginning I felt nothing but cold and stoic. As I turned the last page I could feel my own heart wanting to burst out of my chest with the injustice of it all. I can't wait to get started on part 2!!