Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Science Fiction
Publication Date: 10th February 2016
My Rating: ★★★.25
Goodreads Summary:
At first, HOPE (Humanity's One Plan for
Escape) habitat appears to be a well-oiled machine, preparing 5,000 carefully
chosen inhabitants for a new Earth. However, a medical assistant named Ilium
reveals that certain members of the habitat have been falling ill from a
mysterious virus they were inoculated against. Soon, HOPE habitat's tranquil
illusion is shattered as Avalon plays a perplexing message left by her father.
If Avalon is to survive this dangerous new environment, she will have to find
the strength to navigate a habitat enveloped in secrets.
**No Spoilers**
I was sent a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. I'm always interested in reading sci-fi/futuristic novels so when Nicole approached me with her debut novel I was extremely interested in giving it a read. The book focuses on a girl named Avalon who wakes up 100 years in the future after being cryogenically frozen, as one of the few inhabitants of earth chosen to survive the end of the world.
This book was a very enjoyable read, it was action-packed, filled with twists and suspense, and is a solid first book in a series. The writing definitely suited the tone of the book and it had me turning the page to find out what happened next. I particularly became engrossed during the matching process, which I didn't see coming and was very well written; I thoroughly enjoyed reading that chapter. The book took me less than a day to read and was a very quick read.
I did have a few issues with the book, one being the main character who irritated me slightly. I can't quite put my finger on what it was but I think she just wasn't fleshed out enough for me. Quite a few of the characters felt rather two-dimensional and I felt as though we didn't get to know some of them enough to start caring about them. However, with this being the first book in a series I think the characters will develop further in the next novel and I look forward to seeing more of them and how they grow. I think I would've preferred to see more of Avalon's character (and some of the other characters) before all of this happened, so we could get more of an idea of who these people are, and I think it might have built up some of the relationships more. Having said that, I really loved Ilium's character, he was very realistic and it was nice to see from his perspective at times, although that did jump around occasionally.
One issue I had was a trope that is used in pretty much every YA novel I've read (barring a few), and it's also one of my biggest pet peeves: immediate dislike/jealousy between female characters, and also having a female protagonist with zero female friends. It's just not realistic, even in this unusual circumstance. Skylar takes an immediate jealous dislike to her for absolutely no reason and makes it pretty obvious. It's not a fault with this book in particular but just something that bothers me when I read most YA books.
I found that a lot of this book just seemed to happen so quickly because of how action-packed it was. The twist at the end happened so quickly that I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm definitely intrigued to find out more! I'm definitely going to pick up the next book as this one was a very enjoyable, suspense-filled read, and, overall, a good sci-fi debut. I'm very interested to continue the rest of the series to see where it goes and watch the characters and story develop. It's very refreshing to read an indie novel with such a unique concept.
I did have a few issues with the book, one being the main character who irritated me slightly. I can't quite put my finger on what it was but I think she just wasn't fleshed out enough for me. Quite a few of the characters felt rather two-dimensional and I felt as though we didn't get to know some of them enough to start caring about them. However, with this being the first book in a series I think the characters will develop further in the next novel and I look forward to seeing more of them and how they grow. I think I would've preferred to see more of Avalon's character (and some of the other characters) before all of this happened, so we could get more of an idea of who these people are, and I think it might have built up some of the relationships more. Having said that, I really loved Ilium's character, he was very realistic and it was nice to see from his perspective at times, although that did jump around occasionally.
One issue I had was a trope that is used in pretty much every YA novel I've read (barring a few), and it's also one of my biggest pet peeves: immediate dislike/jealousy between female characters, and also having a female protagonist with zero female friends. It's just not realistic, even in this unusual circumstance. Skylar takes an immediate jealous dislike to her for absolutely no reason and makes it pretty obvious. It's not a fault with this book in particular but just something that bothers me when I read most YA books.
I found that a lot of this book just seemed to happen so quickly because of how action-packed it was. The twist at the end happened so quickly that I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm definitely intrigued to find out more! I'm definitely going to pick up the next book as this one was a very enjoyable, suspense-filled read, and, overall, a good sci-fi debut. I'm very interested to continue the rest of the series to see where it goes and watch the characters and story develop. It's very refreshing to read an indie novel with such a unique concept.
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