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thesewoventales's review
3.0
The story was set in a post apocalyptic world where the remaining civilization is forced to hide underground in bunkers in order to avoid the "Sweepers" and the "Rouges". The Sweepers are a group of mad scientists who are trying to replenish the Earth's population by making clones and performing experiments on young humans they extract. The Rouges are a bunch of escaped convicts from a high security reeducation centre, who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone they come across. The heroine Derry has to set out to rescue her brother from the Sweepers when he gets abducted and the story takes on form there.
I enjoyed the fast pace of the book as well as the plot. But I feel like this story is not new. Also, I didn't like the love interests at all. The guy I shipped her with wasn't even considered as a love interest, and towards the end of the book she started having a crush on the most random person, out of no where. This felt forced and out of place. Also, there was no chemistry between her boyfriend and her. Their relationship was talked about very little and was very poorly represented.
A free copy of the book was provided by the author in exchange for a honest review.
I enjoyed the fast pace of the book as well as the plot. But I feel like this story is not new. Also, I didn't like the love interests at all. The guy I shipped her with wasn't even considered as a love interest, and towards the end of the book she started having a crush on the most random person, out of no where. This felt forced and out of place. Also, there was no chemistry between her boyfriend and her. Their relationship was talked about very little and was very poorly represented.
A free copy of the book was provided by the author in exchange for a honest review.
shai3d's review
2.0
I couldn't even finish this book as I wasn't able to muster up enough interest in the character to really care what happened to her. It was well edited but well, I found it boring.
katieb94's review
3.0
I actually really enjoyed this book, the mix between science fiction and adventure was written well as I loved the character of Derry. Not only is she a tough girl, but the love she has for her dog, Tucker made her instantly likeable.
There is such a group of characters, and Derry is the only female character of the main group which shows she is the one we follow, as well as not getting overshadowed by the boys.
It started off slower than I would have liked but the story really picked up and got really interesting. I really like the writing style, it may have had some repetition but there was a good amount of detail and world building that I can forgive that.
The Sweepers- the villains of the story were not what I expected. What they turned out to be made them even scarier and I can completely understand why the Undergrounders had a hard time trusting them.
There were definitely moments that pulled at my heartstrings.
It was good!
If you want a YA dystopian sci-fi that follows a strong female character then I would totally suggest that you pick this book up! I'm definitely curious about the rest of the series so maybe I'll pick it up when my TBR reduces.
3.5/5 stars.
There is such a group of characters, and Derry is the only female character of the main group which shows she is the one we follow, as well as not getting overshadowed by the boys.
It started off slower than I would have liked but the story really picked up and got really interesting. I really like the writing style, it may have had some repetition but there was a good amount of detail and world building that I can forgive that.
The Sweepers- the villains of the story were not what I expected. What they turned out to be made them even scarier and I can completely understand why the Undergrounders had a hard time trusting them.
There were definitely moments that pulled at my heartstrings.
It was good!
If you want a YA dystopian sci-fi that follows a strong female character then I would totally suggest that you pick this book up! I'm definitely curious about the rest of the series so maybe I'll pick it up when my TBR reduces.
3.5/5 stars.
carolinag's review
1.0
Plot
This plot is a mess. The action doesn’t rise steadily towards the climax. Instead, it advances in jerks, going forwards, sideways and even backwards. The characters are ready to go from plot-point A to B, it’s the logic progression of the story, but plot-point C comes out of nowhere so the chapter can end in a cliffhanger. It’s an attempt to make the plot seem complicated and twisty (and some padding), but fails and ends up being annoying, distracting and it ruins the flow.
This trend is a constant throughout the book. In the climax, the heroes are there, but stuff just kept happening and getting in the way. The same thing happened afterwards. The battle was over, the heroes were going home when suddenly, out-of-nowhere, wild plot-point kept coming up. They didn’t belong there, but you need to up the word-count and twists.
As for the actual plot, it’s just common. It’s your standard story of someone that was taken by an evil corporation and the heroes have to get them back. I’ve seen it done a dozens of times and pretty much all of them were better. The trick to make it good is the interesting world-building and the compelling characters. This book is an epic fail on both.
The Science
People who don’t understand science should not write sci-fi. This is science fail instead of science fiction.
The evil scientists have a secret compound where they perform evil experiments, called Craniopolis (how stupid a name is that?). Among other things, they clone. The characters, including our dear heroine, treat the clones as sub-people. Derry often wonders if they have feelings and it’s amazed that they do (clones are like robots to her). She even wonders at one point if they have a scent (of course they do, they’re people).
Well, a clone is just a copy. You take the DNA from an organism and make a new one from the start, just like the original. It’s exists in nature. Identical twins are clones of each other, for example. If human cloning ever becomes possible, clones will be normal people. Even if these are genetically modified and have selected traits, they are still people. But they’re not treated that way.
Their deaths are also a problem. When they reach their expiration date or are killed, their bodies suffer what the author call ossification in a matter of a few minutes. Clones die early because they come from an adult’s DNA suffered damage over time. It’s almost like, to put it simply, they’re born old. They don’t die out-of-nowhere on a specific date; they die of old age. The ossification has no reason to happen, much less so fast. It’s just stupid.
There are some other experiments focused on cybernetics and linking people to machines and so on. These are treated as horrific. On one hand, they are, because the human subjects didn’t volunteer and it looks painful. On the other hand, what they’re doing is indeed evil, but the progress they’re achieving is not. Derry can’t separate the two and doesn’t understand that there’s no evil science/progress, just evil people.
That being said, for a sci-fi novel, this book not only has some huge science fail, it presents an anti-science and anti-progress message. It paints in a terrible, uninformed light the science that makes all of our lives better. I was almost expecting it to tell me that vaccines cause autism.
Characters
I hate them all and I wanted them all to die soon.
Derry: The one I hate the most. She started okay, but when the science fail kicked in, she was in the front row and clapping along. As I said before, she treats the clones as sub-people and sees science almost as the root of all evil. Again and again she is ignorant (and doesn’t try to correct said ignorance), prejudiced (against the clones and the science she doesn’t understand) and stupid.
She’s a teenager, and therefore unexperienced, but grown men look at this idiot for leadership during the rescue mission. It doesn’t suit her, but she’s the heroine, so that’s how it has to be. Even after she proves how useless and burden she is, she’s still calling the shots, for no reason.
The other characters aren’t worth mentioning separately. The heroes think Derry is great and awesome and want her as a leader even if she doesn’t possess any leadership qualities. The villains are so hammy and over-the-top (and ugly, she won’t let you forget that) that I imagined all of them with twirling moustaches.
Style
The story is told in first-person POV in the present tense. Do not expect, though, a deep look at Derry’s mind. First, she’s not very deep. Second, the prose is bland and it rarely has any emotion; she will tell you how she feels, but she will hardly show it to you. Third, she’s a stupid bitch.
Derry is a big fan of stating the obvious. She’s not very bright and assumes that everyone else needs it spelled out to them as she does. We don’t. When she’s not doing that, she might be throwing a red herring at you.
This is just terrible.
Final Notes
Science fail and protagonist-centered morality. All you need to truly crappy novel.
This plot is a mess. The action doesn’t rise steadily towards the climax. Instead, it advances in jerks, going forwards, sideways and even backwards. The characters are ready to go from plot-point A to B, it’s the logic progression of the story, but plot-point C comes out of nowhere so the chapter can end in a cliffhanger. It’s an attempt to make the plot seem complicated and twisty (and some padding), but fails and ends up being annoying, distracting and it ruins the flow.
This trend is a constant throughout the book. In the climax, the heroes are there, but stuff just kept happening and getting in the way. The same thing happened afterwards. The battle was over, the heroes were going home when suddenly, out-of-nowhere, wild plot-point kept coming up. They didn’t belong there, but you need to up the word-count and twists.
As for the actual plot, it’s just common. It’s your standard story of someone that was taken by an evil corporation and the heroes have to get them back. I’ve seen it done a dozens of times and pretty much all of them were better. The trick to make it good is the interesting world-building and the compelling characters. This book is an epic fail on both.
The Science
People who don’t understand science should not write sci-fi. This is science fail instead of science fiction.
The evil scientists have a secret compound where they perform evil experiments, called Craniopolis (how stupid a name is that?). Among other things, they clone. The characters, including our dear heroine, treat the clones as sub-people. Derry often wonders if they have feelings and it’s amazed that they do (clones are like robots to her). She even wonders at one point if they have a scent (of course they do, they’re people).
Well, a clone is just a copy. You take the DNA from an organism and make a new one from the start, just like the original. It’s exists in nature. Identical twins are clones of each other, for example. If human cloning ever becomes possible, clones will be normal people. Even if these are genetically modified and have selected traits, they are still people. But they’re not treated that way.
Their deaths are also a problem. When they reach their expiration date or are killed, their bodies suffer what the author call ossification in a matter of a few minutes. Clones die early because they come from an adult’s DNA suffered damage over time. It’s almost like, to put it simply, they’re born old. They don’t die out-of-nowhere on a specific date; they die of old age. The ossification has no reason to happen, much less so fast. It’s just stupid.
There are some other experiments focused on cybernetics and linking people to machines and so on. These are treated as horrific. On one hand, they are, because the human subjects didn’t volunteer and it looks painful. On the other hand, what they’re doing is indeed evil, but the progress they’re achieving is not. Derry can’t separate the two and doesn’t understand that there’s no evil science/progress, just evil people.
That being said, for a sci-fi novel, this book not only has some huge science fail, it presents an anti-science and anti-progress message. It paints in a terrible, uninformed light the science that makes all of our lives better. I was almost expecting it to tell me that vaccines cause autism.
Characters
I hate them all and I wanted them all to die soon.
Derry: The one I hate the most. She started okay, but when the science fail kicked in, she was in the front row and clapping along. As I said before, she treats the clones as sub-people and sees science almost as the root of all evil. Again and again she is ignorant (and doesn’t try to correct said ignorance), prejudiced (against the clones and the science she doesn’t understand) and stupid.
She’s a teenager, and therefore unexperienced, but grown men look at this idiot for leadership during the rescue mission. It doesn’t suit her, but she’s the heroine, so that’s how it has to be. Even after she proves how useless and burden she is, she’s still calling the shots, for no reason.
The other characters aren’t worth mentioning separately. The heroes think Derry is great and awesome and want her as a leader even if she doesn’t possess any leadership qualities. The villains are so hammy and over-the-top (and ugly, she won’t let you forget that) that I imagined all of them with twirling moustaches.
Style
The story is told in first-person POV in the present tense. Do not expect, though, a deep look at Derry’s mind. First, she’s not very deep. Second, the prose is bland and it rarely has any emotion; she will tell you how she feels, but she will hardly show it to you. Third, she’s a stupid bitch.
Derry is a big fan of stating the obvious. She’s not very bright and assumes that everyone else needs it spelled out to them as she does. We don’t. When she’s not doing that, she might be throwing a red herring at you.
This is just terrible.
Final Notes
Science fail and protagonist-centered morality. All you need to truly crappy novel.
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