Phillip Abraham
this book was such an enormous slog. the first half was so incredibly dull, and the second half felt like a compilation of events rather than a cohesive narrative. it's a post-apocalyptic setting, yet our sources of conflict are:
• andrew constantly trying to abandon jamie
• a flooded highway tunnel
• naked man with axe
• homophobia
• escaped zoo lions (???)
there wasn't a real overarching plot - seriously, both of the main characters' goals just disappeared after chapters of them talking about their importance!! i felt like i was getting whiplash!!
and speaking of the main characters, i'm sorry, but they felt so incredibly insufferable. i understand that they're teenagers and don't have the best emotional regulation, but SO MANY of the decisions that andrew and jamie made throughout this book were infuriating to watch. the only other character of note in this entire book was cara, who i wish had a bigger role than she did because she was honestly the best character in the entire book.
other than that, the constant pop culture references grated on me. i didn't understand most of the references, so they just fell completely flat for me. the writing style also felt very stripped down and dull at times.
i really tried to love this - in theory, i should've! gay people in the apocalypse??? count me in! but this was just an absolute chore to get through, i'm so sorry.
This book definitely got heavy, especially toward the end, but I really enjoyed it! The twist was a bit obvious, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the latter half of the book at all. I think the portrayal of the emotions surrounding the reveal was especially well-written. Safiya and Jawad's POV's also felt very distinct, which is surprisingly rare in a lot of young adult fiction I've read.
Overall, a great book with important and well-researched theming!
"Be careful you don't scare him," I began but the unicorn beside me let out a snort which sounded annoyed before suddenly lurching towards me and turning into a boy with frosted tips in his hair and a huge grin on his face."
DNF @ 40%
i can acknowlege that i'm not the audience for this book, but even still, this is NOT well written in the slightest. i kept pointing out basic typos and clunky sentence construction, and usually i can tolerate subpar prose to a certain degree, but it was just not good here. did nobody read that sentence in the editing phase??? did they decide it made sense??
and the actual plot... at the very least, i hoped it would be a guilty pleasure sort of story that i can enjoy if i acknowledge its flaws, but no. i genuinely kept forgetting the love interests' names because they were all just the same brand of smirking hot male love interest. if you want to write about that, fine, but at least try to make them meaningfully different. i also don't understand this book's use of multiple POVs, since both tory and darcy sound like the exact same character.
the sole enjoyment i got out of this book was laughing about it with my friends, and sending screenshots every time something insane happened. if you have a high tolerance for bad writing AND just want something to laugh at, you could probably find enjoyment in this book, but otherwise, please don't read this.
DNF @ 80%
now - you might be wondering why i chose not to finish this book AND still rated it 4 stars! it's because i absolutely hate love triangles, and this book sets one up right around the 70% mark AND makes it incredibly obvious who the endgame love interest is.
i, for the life of me, cannot stand reading about love triangles in any capacity, ESPECIALLY ones where the other option is discarded immediately afterwards - and since I know that's exactly what the end of this book sets up and the sequel executes... i just couldn't do it
edited for reread: this book is just as, if not more amazing than i remember it being. so glad i chose to read it again
original review:
i need to write this before i start getting emotional from how GOOD this book is.
by the halfway point, i realized just how INSANE this book is. so much happens that i was just in shock for most of the time - literally from 50% onwards i was either in shock or tearing up the whole time.
while i did appreciate a lot of the subjects that were touched upon, it just didn't make up the bland writing and rushed pacing for me. spencer also had me frustrated at times as a main character - i feel like a lot of the conflict (not including the main one) would have been easily preventable through more communication.
the romance also felt underdeveloped for me - i think it was the best part of the book (especially during the middle) but the third act just left me unsatisfied with how it concluded.
4 ⭐️
not as good as scythe, but still decently interesting! to be honest, not much really happened during the first half of the book other than setup for future plot points. loved greyson as a main character, but honestly didn't find his plot to be all that important.
and ROWAN. i'm sorry but what happened to him?? he went from being this skilled antihero to instantly getting captured. he was kinda just... there, but not really there the whole book. not to mention his romance with citra (which was already hard to believe then) somehow tanked even further here
3.5 ⭐️
My feelings on this book are conflicted.
There were SO MANY things that I loved about it. The side characters - Izzi and Helene were my favorites in the entire book, and I really wished at times that they were more present than they ended up being. I also loved a lot of the action stuff from the second half, with the Trials being (mostly) really compelling and interesting to watch, and I also really enjoyed the dynamic with all the characters in Laia's POV - It was really engaging, and I really liked what we were able to see of them!
And yet, there was a lot that I disliked - The slow first half, the frustrating miscommunication in Elias' POV, and the GODAWFUL love square. Seriously - why did this have to be in the book?? It was so painfully obvious who would end up together, and just felt like a waste of time - Not to mention how both characters that didn't end up in a relationship got the absolute worst outcomes afterwards. The way Elias and Helene's dynamic turned out made me so, so frustrated!! Did we really need to have Helene banished to being the “not-love-interest” girl who gets written out of the spotlight??
(I also just think that Laia and Elias would've worked a lot better as a platonic relationship, not a romance
