Synopsis (from Goodreads): Ninety-five days, and then I'll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It's hard to be patient. It's hard not to be afraid while I'm still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn't touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't.
(just a note: I absolutely love the synopsis. I just. It's fabulous, isn't it?)
What I liked: Oooh, dystopians. I'm always attracted to dystopian novels, and this one was especially interesting to me--the title, the synopsis, just the whole idea in general. I absolutely love the writing style; there are plenty of descriptions but not so many that it's extremely boring (like another book that I'll be reviewing soon). I couldn't put it down. Every time I told myself I'll stop at the end of this chapter, I kept reading on and on until like 3 AM. Not kidding. I especially love the character named Alex, though I'm not sure if I should elaborate on why ;) sort of spoiler-y. Oliver does a fantastic job of explaining how this new USA works without making it seem like an info-dump. And I got mad plenty of times, but I'm pretty sure I was supposed to get mad, haha. Ending was beautifully heart-wrenching and I'll leave it at that.
What I didn't like: The narrator, Lena, was kind of eh to me. Nothing to really dislike about her, but she didn't really stand out in any way. (note: this changes in the next book. Wow.) Relationships and trust seem to build weirdly fast, probably because quite a few weeks pass throughout the book, but it seemed a little rushed. Some swear words are used, the f-bomb two or three times, but that's not worth not reading this book. Romance was mostly just kissing, some suggestive moments but they were written smoothly.
Overall Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recommended Reading Age: I don't really know ummM 12+, maybe 13+
Sorry, I'm still working on my book-reviewing skills...right now they're still in the random-paragraphs-of-my-thoughts stage. Someday I'll get better.
--Audrey
This has just gone on my to-read list, which seems to mostly consist of dystopian books these days. Is that just me? I feel like that because of the Hunger Games and Divergent (have you read that? If not, go read it. Now.) have set up YA for a lot of dystopian
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