*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

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I am really sad I had to bail on this book. I was hesitant to try one of Lisa Bevere’s books honestly. Her husband came to spoke at my church (I attend Hillsong LA) and at first, I thought he was really profound, only to realize looking back that his speaking style and the points he was making weren’t really resonating long term. I also discovered that John Bevere is known for being very anti-gay, however, my church doesn’t let that message of condemnation ever be preached from the pulpit. This did color my vision of him and his wife.

I was granted this book on NetGalley and was really excited to read it. The topic seemed interesting, and I was hoping that the “controversial” topics wouldn’t be addressed. However, in a chapter that I originally was really excited about and was handled extremely well in regards to females in the church, Bevere made a very ignorant comment about trans* people. I’ve realized as I make my way through many of these Christian books a year (I sort of use these as my devotionals, reading a chapter a day, to learn more and dive into what He has in store for me) that even a simple paragraph like this makes it hard for me to soak in anything else the author has for me, so at that point I bailed.

I gave this book 1.5 stars because I liked the content up to then, but I know I wouldn’t have been able to get past the comments made. It really bums me out how prevalent and accepted this is in Christian publishing, and I wish we would just stop.

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I can't do this book. I really can't. I was so excited to read this too but, yeah no it's not happening. I got to about page 100, past my first typical DNF mark and it's just not for me. I was expecting dystopian and got a dystopian high fantasy mix. I kept comparing this to the BIRTHMARKED trilogy which is fucking phenomenal, but it felt like a combo of The Selection which I read because it's a train wreck and I can't stop, and a wannabe Katniss. I am probably super alone in this but I tried. I really couldn't do this.

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I have a friend who has a rule: if the cover has a human on it (not drawn, but an actual photographed human) and the first word of the book is "I" she doesn't read it. The Sound actually fit both of these and I probably should have passed.
 
So here's the thing about The Sound. I wanted to give it a chance, and I really wanted to like it. But I couldn't.
 
The main character is a hot mess, she's annoying and a huge try hard. I actually checked multiple times that the author was actually British, because part of it felt really...fake to me. Ren felt very 2 dimensional, there wasn't any part of her that I could relate to and that made me sad.
 
I made it to my typical DNF point and was happy I was finally there. Things were starting? to maybe? pick up with this whole storyline with Jesse, but it wasn't enough and it wasn't thrilling like say Abigail Haas's "Dangerous Girls", and it really didn't fit the thriller motto. Jesse's story wasn't scary, the build up wasn't there to make me really curious of what was going on with him. He seemed fine, and I wasn't too concerned for her safety.
 
I can't give this one star, although I probably should. So it can have two. But here are some quotes that just show some of the ridiculousness:
 
"Still not my type, because he is, after all, still in possession of a penis. But hot nonetheless."

No she's not gay, just? not? interested? in penis? anymore? I don't know. This is unclear, and really weird. Apparently, she was just saying that she isn't interested in guys right now because she went through a hard breakup. At first I thought maybe she was coming out, but it was made evident she wasn't. I was actually intrigued at this point, but then...well stopped being intrigued when I realized she was just saying she wasn't interested in penis because of a bad breakup? I don't know.
 
‘Are she and Matt going out?’ ‘Going out?’ he asks, lifting his eyebrows at me. ‘Dating, you mean?’ I nod. ‘I guess you could call it that. They hook up every summer but it’s not like it’s Facebook official or anything.’

You see this a lot, where it's like Ren is from a different planet or something. She's not from another time, just from the UK. Yeah, the slang is slightly different, but I've never heard of there being this weird disconnect between Americans and Brits. In fact I know many Brits and it's never been stilted like this. Also, Americans know that Going out = Dating? I guess? Just weird.
 
There are also a ton of pop culture references in this book, that all also seem dated and strange and out of touch.
 
I'm not saying I won't read anything by Alderson, because I'll never say that, but I was disappointed with this.

This book was mentioned on the following episodes of Checking Out:
Episode 1 - Listen here.
Episode 2 - Listen here.