Book Review: The First Twenty

Title: The First Twenty
Author: Jennifer Lavoie
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Year of Publication: 2015
Summary: Humanity was nearly wiped out when a series of global disasters struck, but pockets of survivors have managed to thrive and are starting to rebuild society. Peyton lives with others in what used to be a factory. When her adopted father is murdered by Scavengers, she is determined to bring justice to those who took him away from her. She didn’t count on meeting Nixie.

Nixie is one of the few people born with the ability to dowse for water with her body. In a world where safe water is hard to come by, she’s a valuable tool to her people. When she’s taken by Peyton, they’ll do anything to get her back. As the tension between the groups reaches critical max, Peyton is forced to make a decision: give up the girl she’s learned to love, or risk the lives of those she’s responsible for.

Review: **Copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

If you like your books filled with page-turning action, heart pumping romance, and characters that pop right off the page... sadly The First Twenty isn't for you. Really, you should only consider reading this book if you love stagnant pacing, forced romance, or just possibly need something to put you to sleep.

The First Twenty, at a glance contained most things I love in YA fiction. Dying earth, diversity, interesting plot - but sadly all were poorly executed. By the end of the story I was not attached to any of the characters, nor was I invested in any of the zero-chemistry romances that occurred. And really, I can't even tell you what the main characters looked like aside from the fact that one was blonde and tall. They were all so very two dimensional.

The world building was another huge let down. Readers are left with more questions than answers at the end. How did society fall? What happened during the collapse? How long ago was it? What kind of town do the Settlers live in? Is it a city, or a suburb, or a small town, or just a bunch of buildings? Is there a wall or a fence around it? Wouldn't that be the smart thing to do if you are trying to keep people out?

Why is this book even called the First Twenty?

So many questions. Ultimately this novel is not the worst thing I've ever read but it does make me sad because it had so much potential. Two stars are all I can muster up for this one.

Rating: 2/5 stars

★★✰✰✰

Book Review: Slated

Title: Slated
Author: Teri Terry
Publisher: Orchard Books
Year of Publication: 2012
Summary: Kyla’s memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost for ever.

She’s been Slated.

The government claims she was a terrorist and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Review: Let me start out by saying - this book was basically AMAZING. It was so good! I was drawn in from the very beginning - Teri Terry does an excellent job at weaving a story and creating characters that jump off the page. If I hadn't have been so busy I would have finished this novel in one sitting.

The world building was exquisite and believable. Teri Terry did an excellent job of distributing information throughout the book. The problem I have with a lot of dystopian or post-major event novels is the author tries to throw many details in very early in the book. This was certainly not the case in Slated. Details were revealed as they were needed, and not in huge clumps.

The characters were interesting and diverse, and they changed and grew with the story. For example at the beginning Kyla's new dad was joking and loving whereas her new mum was cold and aloof - in fact, I hated her mum at first, and then I quickly grew to love her. The teenagers were believable teenagers who rebelled and did stupid teenage things and were not perfect but especially in the case of Amy, they loved and cared about each other.

The only complaint I have about this story - and it's a big one - is the ending. WHY TERI TERRY? WHY? That should not have been the end of the story - that was a crap ending and I am frankly a bit mad that such an amazing novel was let down by that ending. It did not feel like the story was over at all. There was no climax. I would gladly have continued reading for another hundred to two hundred pages just for something big to happen.

I am a bit torn between giving this story four or five stars. On one hand almost everything was absolutely perfect... but on the other, the thing that was not perfect was a total let down. So I guess I have to concede, and give this book 4/5.

Rating: 4/5 stars
★★★★✰

Book Review: The Culling

Title: The Culling
Author: JC Andrijeski
Year of publication: 2011 (Netgalley says 2014)

Summary: Jet is a 19-year-old skag, one of the humans still living free on Earth following an invasion of creatures called the Nirreth. Squatting in the ruins of Vancouver, Canada, Jet and her family eke out an existence underground, hiding from the culler ships. No one knows where the ships take the people they grab, but they never return. When a culler finds Jet, she may discover the truth the hard way.


Review: **Copy kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

The Culling presented as an exciting, diverse, new dystopian series with a kick-ass heroine who wields a sword. Unfortunately, in reality The Culling was anything but.

The prose was clunky and repetitive (the amount of times someone hardened their jaw, chuckled, or folded their arms, especially in the same scene, was super annoying) and it also contradicted itself time and time again. There is no real flow to the story - any time we start getting somewhere another info dump is forced upon us, instead of being weaved into the story. The author also spends far too much time telling, rather than showing, and they use broad descriptors such as; Japanese-style, Indian, and Native American, instead of anything with actual depth.

Another fault is with the characters - the main character, Jet, specifically. Jet has lived as a skag all her life, is supposed to know the rules, and at the beginning of the story she is presented as having good knowledge of the Nirreth and being street smart and savvy. Quickly, the reader finds out that this is a load of crock as Jet is kind of dumb, sacrificing her safety for a bit of alone time. She also seems to forget everything she is supposed to know about the Nirreth until whoops, it's too late. To add to insult, Anaze says further into the story that, "Jet is the smartest person he knows, except for his dad" -- uh okay, we've seen absolutely zero evidence in the story so far, but hey, whatever floats your boat dude.

Something that bothered me also was that we didn't seem to get a proper description of the main character anywhere. All I remember from the story was that she has long, black hair. The covers are not much help either, depicting two completely different girls - though as a general rule I don't think we should be relying on the cover to tell us what the main character looks like.

Andrijeski also has a habit of not mentioning things that may have been integral to understanding the story until later. Towards the very end of the book, Anaze and Jet are talking and he mentions something about how she acted in the raids... maybe this should have been said earlier, to give us more information on Jet, instead of randomly thrown in like the author has written the book off the top of their head and then not gone back to edit or flesh out the story and the characters more.

Add in a pointless love interest in the form of Anaze, who we only get scant bits of information about in the narrative, as if Jet doesn't really care about him too but in the end it's basically announced that no, they are totally besties, and also, he's in love with her. Plus Jet's pretty much total amnesia re: her brother who is only mentioned maybe a handful of times in the story, and we have a doozy here. The characters are horribly constructed and so is the story. Not even the scant action in the book with the dinosaur is enough to save it. Maybe if the author went back and did a total rewrite of the story, taking out the pointless information dumps early on and spreading out the necessary bits, as well as building upon the characters, this mess would be salvageable, but as it is it's just barely readable.

I'd give this book zero stars if I could, that's just how bad it is. As Andrijeski is seemingly a seasoned author, I don't have much hope for any of their other books, and I don't think I'd recommend this one to anybody.

Rating: 1/5 stars

★✰✰✰✰