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chaptersofmads 's review for:
How We Rise (How We Rise #1)
by Brooke Riley
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
This was so good!! I already knew I was going to love this, and not just because Brooke is one of the kindest souls out there, but because I'm a sucker for a good dystopian and this sounded right up my alley. I was right. I've always been an odd soul in the way that a good dystopian can feel cozy to me, in a strange way. It's like my comfort genre. This book was no exception, it had all of the things I love about dystopian, while also managing to be unique as well.
There were so many things I enjoyed about this book, from the setting (Texassss) to the characters. (Especially Peter. He's precious and deserves to be protected at all costs.) I loved how this felt like a YA book. It can feel like there are so many adult books masquerading as YA. Authors know YA sells, so they take adult stories and make them YA. (This was my problem with one of the last ARCs I read.) However, this story was authentically YA. The main character is 16 and struggling with her adolescence. The characters are struggling with feeling too young, and yet being forced to grow up too fast. Teenagers can read this book at a very formative, strange time in their life and seem themselves represented in the pages. It was something I really appreciated about the story as a whole.
My only criticism, if you can even call it that, was that some things felt just a bit too unrealistic? The book is set in 2023 and while I know the world isn't doing so hot right now, it was a bit hard for me to imagine the world getting to such a point so quickly. Then there was the matter of two of the president's best agents just leaving their letters and plans in someone else's office, which just felt a bit too convenient and unrealistic. Clearly, this book is a work of fiction and we, as readers, need to be willing to suspend our belief a bit. But, it was still something that I noticed and I wanted to mention it.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book and I'm so grateful I was able to read it. I can't wait to see it (and all of Brooke's future works) on my shelf someday. If you're looking for a sweet, contemporary-esque dystopian with precious characters and a cliffhanger ending, I definitely recommend this one.
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
This was so good!! I already knew I was going to love this, and not just because Brooke is one of the kindest souls out there, but because I'm a sucker for a good dystopian and this sounded right up my alley. I was right. I've always been an odd soul in the way that a good dystopian can feel cozy to me, in a strange way. It's like my comfort genre. This book was no exception, it had all of the things I love about dystopian, while also managing to be unique as well.
There were so many things I enjoyed about this book, from the setting (Texassss) to the characters. (Especially Peter. He's precious and deserves to be protected at all costs.) I loved how this felt like a YA book. It can feel like there are so many adult books masquerading as YA. Authors know YA sells, so they take adult stories and make them YA. (This was my problem with one of the last ARCs I read.) However, this story was authentically YA. The main character is 16 and struggling with her adolescence. The characters are struggling with feeling too young, and yet being forced to grow up too fast. Teenagers can read this book at a very formative, strange time in their life and seem themselves represented in the pages. It was something I really appreciated about the story as a whole.
My only criticism, if you can even call it that, was that some things felt just a bit too unrealistic? The book is set in 2023 and while I know the world isn't doing so hot right now, it was a bit hard for me to imagine the world getting to such a point so quickly. Then there was the matter of two of the president's best agents just leaving their letters and plans in someone else's office, which just felt a bit too convenient and unrealistic. Clearly, this book is a work of fiction and we, as readers, need to be willing to suspend our belief a bit. But, it was still something that I noticed and I wanted to mention it.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed this book and I'm so grateful I was able to read it. I can't wait to see it (and all of Brooke's future works) on my shelf someday. If you're looking for a sweet, contemporary-esque dystopian with precious characters and a cliffhanger ending, I definitely recommend this one.