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A review by hollowspine
City of Savages by Lee Kelly
3.0
After a war with the Red Allies sisters Sky and Phee (Skyler and Phoenix) are raised as POWs in a Central Park camp. They spend their summers wandering, but must return for the POW Census and winter in the Central Park camps, but when they miss the deadline to get counted a chain of events is set into motion that bring the two sisters to question everything they know and lead them to question each other as well.
A debut YA dystopian novel and not the worst I've read this year. Although I was occasionally annoyed by the romance of the book (why was Phee tough as nails whenever the dude wasn't present and as soon as he shows up, suddenly she's all tears and weakness?) overall I was interested in the story Kelly wove and the setting she described. I was pleased that this dystopian story focused more on character and story than just mindless fight scenes one after the other.
There were holes here and there in the plot and the final third of the book felt a bit rushed, but overall the mechanics of the story never brought me completely out of the telling of it. I was interested in the story of the two sisters and how they were so different, but sometimes I did feel like they were a bit flat and didn't always stay "in-character." While the mystery of their mum's diary was interesting it gave a lot of the plot away quickly. As soon as Mary's character was introduced I suspected who she was and it didn't take long for that suspicion to give way to me completely understanding the mystery.
The first third of the book, introducing the characters and the world, went well. I was interested in how this could turn out, how the two sisters would develop, why their mom hated the past etc., however, after we are introduced to the all male party of exploring Brits things start to fall apart. So many questions popped up that never had satisfactory (or any) answers.
Why was Rolladin so fixated on killing the Brits? Why was it so important for her to keep everyone living in fear of a war that had been over for years? The world was still a bombed out shell, so I doubt many people would have abandoned the settlement they'd invested years of their lives in for the unknown world (especially since they do know that there are "Feeders" (why can't we just call a cannibal a cannibal?) and raiders out there willing to kill them for the clothes off their backs or worse yet the meat off their faces.
While the book focused mainly on the two sisters, I felt that the development of the two brothers Sam and Ryder was lacking, Sam didn't seem to be overly attached to Ryder until the end where the only reason he survives is through his adoration of his bro, just wasn't quite believable. I also didn't find it believable that pair were British, they really could have been anything, there was nothing specifically British about them, even in Ryder's reading tastes which were nearly 80% American Literature. I also just hate the name Ryder, which to me spoke of an American cowboy rather than a British scholar.
Overall, it was an okay read. I'd recommend it to those who want to try a dystopian novel, but want something more mild and not quite as violent with more romance than action.
A debut YA dystopian novel and not the worst I've read this year. Although I was occasionally annoyed by the romance of the book (why was Phee tough as nails whenever the dude wasn't present and as soon as he shows up, suddenly she's all tears and weakness?) overall I was interested in the story Kelly wove and the setting she described. I was pleased that this dystopian story focused more on character and story than just mindless fight scenes one after the other.
There were holes here and there in the plot and the final third of the book felt a bit rushed, but overall the mechanics of the story never brought me completely out of the telling of it. I was interested in the story of the two sisters and how they were so different, but sometimes I did feel like they were a bit flat and didn't always stay "in-character." While the mystery of their mum's diary was interesting it gave a lot of the plot away quickly. As soon as Mary's character was introduced I suspected who she was and it didn't take long for that suspicion to give way to me completely understanding the mystery.
The first third of the book, introducing the characters and the world, went well. I was interested in how this could turn out, how the two sisters would develop, why their mom hated the past etc., however, after we are introduced to the all male party of exploring Brits things start to fall apart. So many questions popped up that never had satisfactory (or any) answers.
Why was Rolladin so fixated on killing the Brits? Why was it so important for her to keep everyone living in fear of a war that had been over for years? The world was still a bombed out shell, so I doubt many people would have abandoned the settlement they'd invested years of their lives in for the unknown world (especially since they do know that there are "Feeders" (why can't we just call a cannibal a cannibal?) and raiders out there willing to kill them for the clothes off their backs or worse yet the meat off their faces.
While the book focused mainly on the two sisters, I felt that the development of the two brothers Sam and Ryder was lacking, Sam didn't seem to be overly attached to Ryder until the end where the only reason he survives is through his adoration of his bro, just wasn't quite believable. I also didn't find it believable that pair were British, they really could have been anything, there was nothing specifically British about them, even in Ryder's reading tastes which were nearly 80% American Literature. I also just hate the name Ryder, which to me spoke of an American cowboy rather than a British scholar.
Overall, it was an okay read. I'd recommend it to those who want to try a dystopian novel, but want something more mild and not quite as violent with more romance than action.