I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review and am grateful for that opportunity!

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This book is Watership Down meets The Catholic Church in YA Dystopialand. Honestly, it all works so much better than it has any right to with such disparate feeling pieces. I found this an enjoyable and compelling read and absolutely snagged the sequel, which I'm excited to read.

Ideas and Execution: 4 Stars
Role and Fulfillment as Sequel: 4.5 Stars
Characters and Arcs: 4.5 Stars

Rounded Up

Pacing and Story: 3 Stars
Characters: 4.5 Stars
Ambience and Tone: 4 Stars

Man, I'm starting to think my impression of Jodi Picout's writing is that every book is a plea for people to acknowledge how smart and poignant she is and how clever her writing is because she included this one kind of funny quote her son sent her from reddit once.

It's not actually *bad* in any way I can specifically put my finger on, but it feels faux intellectual and needy for validation.

I wanna keep trying because I *want* to understand the popularity, and I just don't yet.