3.25 stars
I have a lot of thoughts about this book. On one hand, I was intrigued by the concept, and the overall action was compelling and kept me engaged. On the other, I wish I'd felt more connected to the characters and their struggles.


Concept: Set in the near future, there has been a class-based uprising. The poor masses have taken over control of the world through an underground movement. Where they previously felt oppressed, now they are the oppressors, essentially forcing people who were from upper-income lifestyles into slavery. I thought this was an interesting premise, although I don't know if the timeline really seems plausible. All of this happened within the course of just a few years. A complete world-wide dominant takeover. I'm also not totally happy that the 'villains' in this story are a bunch of poor people who felt like their lives were so bad that they had to lead a full-scale revolution and then become more monstrous than the people they originally fought against. I guess I just wish that the author had made a different choice regarding the backstory of the Wolfpack movement.

World-building: This is a mixed bag for me. While I thought the island was very compelling and the action was well-written, I didn't feel like I really understood enough about the society that the Wolves had created. Obviously we know they are 'bad' (although I wish they'd been a little more layered), butI wish we'd spent a little more time exploring the societal structure, so I could connect with it the characters a little more. I also felt like I didn't learn enough about the Deliverers as a group and how they came to be. That was really interesting to me, and I wanted more.


Characters: Again, I have mixed views on this aspect of the story. First of all, I felt like there were too many characters. Most of them serve little to no purpose except to move the plot forward in some way at some point...otherwise they may as well not even be there. I felt like I knew next to nothing about Phoenix, Finnley, Hope, Cass, and Alexa. We get a tiny bit of backstory about Cass and Alexa, but I wanted more. I was actually more interested in their dynamic and relationship than I ever was with Eden and Lonan. As far as they go, I liked Lonan as a character, but felt like the romance between he and Eden was rushed and a little forced. From the time they meet only a couple of days pass, and yet she's saying she's in love. Just didn't really buy it. As far as Eden goes, I liked that she is determined and pushes through her fears. She doesn't act rashly, for the most part. She weighs her options in the situations where she is able to, but can also make a decision and stand by it.
One last thing - I felt like the 'villains' in this story were very one-dimensional. We get introduced to a few of them by name, but they have no depth beyond that. We don't get any glimpse into why they have become these terrible people and I wish we did.

Plot: I think this is probably the best thing about the book, although it's not perfect. The story was relatively well-paced and full of action. The island reminded me of a cross between the Island from Lost and the island from Catching Fire...crazy things trying to kill you around every corner. I was able to follow the story pretty well, although there were a few parts that were confusing for me. One character who was portrayed as being on one side was all of the sudden inexplicably not on that side. And unless I missed something, it was never explained or even addressed. I actually went back into the book to try to find a line or scene I may have skimmed over to explain it, to no avail. Also, while the action in this book is its strongest aspect, I wouldn't have minded a slightly abridged version of events if it meant we got a little more of a character-driven narrative.

Reveals:

***mild spoilers may be ahead. Nothing specific in terms of characters or plot, just with regards to writing choices***


There were several twists and turns along the way in this book. For the most part, I had figured out what was going to happen way before it was actually revealed to our characters. Near the end of the book, it became more and more twisty, but I don't know that it actually helped the book. For me, I got to the point that I didn't believe anyone, so nothing that was being relayed to the characters had any weight because I wasn't sure who was being truthful.


Other thoughts:

1. I could definitely see this being a movie. I would definitely watch it, just to see the island and all its traps.

2. I think this is a standalone novel (it's not listed as #1 is a series, in any case.) and I wish there were more standalone sci-fi books. That being said, I do wonder if this would've perhaps benefitted from being a duology. It could've still ended at the same spot, but maybe we could've gotten more character depth and the relationship wouldn't have seemed so rushed.

3. I would read a whole book about Alexa and Cass. They were far more compelling to me, what with their backstory.


All in all, I thought this was an interesting book that had promise. I'm not sure that the execution was anything spectacular, but considering this is a debut novel, I'm very interested to see what this author writes next.