The Catalyst

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I think dystopias set in London are the in thing just now. I felt this was quite similar to The Bone Season what with the aliens and all that. Though I would say that The Bone Season was much better than this, I did feel that some parts of it still needed some work.

I didn't quite understand why some of the characters made the decisions they did. I didn't understand why this top secret “Department” allowed teenagers to take part in investigations. It also seemed to be terrible at following its own rules, most of the problems in the book wouldn't have happened if it followed the rules and didn't tell civilians about top secret work.

I also didn't like the references to Tesco, the Westfield Shopping Center and Star Trek. It brought be out of the novel and I really can't believe that in a dystopian setting after years of war people are just going about shopping like nothing happened.

But the thing with this book is I'm seriously impressed with the author, she is only 15 years old, she was 13 when she wrote this story. And while its not great, its not terrible either. It still needs some work but its an impressive first book for someone who hasn't even finished school yet.