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A review by lurdes_oliveira
City of Savages - A Cidade dos Selvagens by Lee Kelly
3.0
There's a lot that I liked about this book, but there also things I didn't like so much. I liked the writing style and the double POV and it was a compulsive read. Even though it didn't always go where I wanted it too, I never once wanted to stop, but I felt like the book didn’t really have the action that I thought it would, considering this is a post-apocalypse world.
Speaking of world, the world-building in this book is a mess. The story is set two decades after World War III in which America has been defeated and Manhattan is now under control by their enemies, the Red Allies. Despite this being a constant theme throughout the story, we never learn much more about the war than those few facts, and I wanted to learn more.
Then there's the love triangle, I hate love triangles! Two sisters fighting over the same guy is a bit much for me. I get that this can happen in real life, and probably does a lot. But, surely, in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world with cannibals and warlords running around, there's more important things to think about…
The final thing that bothered me about this book, is the way the book suddenly becomes a completely book, with different plot; starting off with a rather ridiculous coincidence - a friend of their mother's from before the war suddenly encountering them in an huge city - and suddenly everyone is propelled into another, quite separate, adventure. And, for me, this adventure wasn't nearly as exciting, it had some interesting moments, but at this point my suspension of disbelief was stretched to the limit, and made the whole thing less interesting.
It feels like the author ran out of steam on one idea, or realized they'd nearly wrapped it up after only halfway through the book, and jumped onto another…
Speaking of world, the world-building in this book is a mess. The story is set two decades after World War III in which America has been defeated and Manhattan is now under control by their enemies, the Red Allies. Despite this being a constant theme throughout the story, we never learn much more about the war than those few facts, and I wanted to learn more.
Then there's the love triangle, I hate love triangles! Two sisters fighting over the same guy is a bit much for me. I get that this can happen in real life, and probably does a lot. But, surely, in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world with cannibals and warlords running around, there's more important things to think about…
The final thing that bothered me about this book, is the way the book suddenly becomes a completely book, with different plot; starting off with a rather ridiculous coincidence - a friend of their mother's from before the war suddenly encountering them in an huge city - and suddenly everyone is propelled into another, quite separate, adventure. And, for me, this adventure wasn't nearly as exciting, it had some interesting moments, but at this point my suspension of disbelief was stretched to the limit, and made the whole thing less interesting.
It feels like the author ran out of steam on one idea, or realized they'd nearly wrapped it up after only halfway through the book, and jumped onto another…