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A review by pantailamon
City of Savages by Lee Kelly
3.0
I was drawn to this book first because of its premise, and second because it was the story of two sisters, rather than the typical boy-and-a-girl story. I've always been a sucker for post-apocalyptic survival/rebuilding stories, and Kelly does it well here -- the world she's built is interesting and plausible, and I enjoyed getting to know it. I do wish some parts were better explained or more deeply explored -- the holdouts, for example -- but since the book is centered around only a handful of characters, I suppose there wasn't much opportunity for that. And given that this is a YA novel, I don't really expect the world to be substantially complex and detailed.
The characters:
- I really liked both Phee and Sky for the most part. They had interesting, distinct personalities with differing philosophies, wants, and needs. They treated each other with kindness, with annoyance, with love, with anger, with jealousy. For the most part, their relationship felt true and complex, like relationships between siblings should be.
- I liked their mother Sarah as a character. I liked that we got to know her through her journal, and that we learned more and more about her as the book progressed. Rolladin was an interesting character as well, and her role in Sarah's life was surprising and also super interesting. Honestly, I was more invested in Sarah and Rolladin's story at times than I was in Sky and Phee's. After reading Sarah's journal entries, I'm left wanting a whole other book set just after the invasion, centered around those left behind and their fight for survival.
- The Brits. I had no strong feelings for any of them. They felt mostly like cardboard characters to me. At least there was an effort to make Ryder interesting, but I never really came to care for him.
- Trevor. What was the point of him in this book?
The plot:
- I enjoyed it. There was no shocking twist or truly unexpected conflicts, but it was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages, which is as much as I could want really.
The romance:
- My least favorite part of this book. I knocked off half a star for the romance. It felt unnecessary and underdeveloped. There's no insta-love, thank god, but even so, I never felt the chemistry. I groaned aloud when I realized there was going to be a love triangle (ughh terrible) between sisters (even worse). If it was just that though, I suppose I could've dealt with it, but when Phee and Sky just keep thinking about Ryder's ~strong arms~ and these ~warm flutters of desire~ even when they were in mortal danger I was completely over this whole thing. I did a lot of eye-rolling in the last 25% of this book. When you're trying to escape a delusional cult leader, is this really the time to be jealous about your sister maybe kissing your crush? Really? Is this really the time to feel all fluttery and gooey about sneaking out to meet your crush (to plan an escape)? Really??
In the end, this was an enjoyable book. It wasn't anything mind-blowing and there were points where I Sighed Heavily, but I had fun reading it.
The characters:
- I really liked both Phee and Sky for the most part. They had interesting, distinct personalities with differing philosophies, wants, and needs. They treated each other with kindness, with annoyance, with love, with anger, with jealousy. For the most part, their relationship felt true and complex, like relationships between siblings should be.
- I liked their mother Sarah as a character. I liked that we got to know her through her journal, and that we learned more and more about her as the book progressed. Rolladin was an interesting character as well, and her role in Sarah's life was surprising and also super interesting. Honestly, I was more invested in Sarah and Rolladin's story at times than I was in Sky and Phee's. After reading Sarah's journal entries, I'm left wanting a whole other book set just after the invasion, centered around those left behind and their fight for survival.
- The Brits. I had no strong feelings for any of them. They felt mostly like cardboard characters to me. At least there was an effort to make Ryder interesting, but I never really came to care for him.
- Trevor. What was the point of him in this book?
The plot:
- I enjoyed it. There was no shocking twist or truly unexpected conflicts, but it was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages, which is as much as I could want really.
The romance:
- My least favorite part of this book. I knocked off half a star for the romance. It felt unnecessary and underdeveloped. There's no insta-love, thank god, but even so, I never felt the chemistry. I groaned aloud when I realized there was going to be a love triangle (ughh terrible) between sisters (even worse). If it was just that though, I suppose I could've dealt with it, but when Phee and Sky just keep thinking about Ryder's ~strong arms~ and these ~warm flutters of desire~ even when they were in mortal danger I was completely over this whole thing. I did a lot of eye-rolling in the last 25% of this book. When you're trying to escape a delusional cult leader, is this really the time to be jealous about your sister maybe kissing your crush? Really? Is this really the time to feel all fluttery and gooey about sneaking out to meet your crush (to plan an escape)? Really??
In the end, this was an enjoyable book. It wasn't anything mind-blowing and there were points where I Sighed Heavily, but I had fun reading it.