Review: Post-Apocalypse Lite / Futuristic
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2013
The Undesirable is a futuristic (no space ships or anything) novel that takes place in the United States. Honestly, it's kind of like a light version of "post-apocalyptic" novels. No apocalypse has happened, but there's a dictator and everything is monitored. Movies, TV stations, everything. The reason behind this is that the government doesn't want people knowing too much.Charlotte is an independent, 18-year-old girl whose mother doesn't care about her. She's been taking care of herself for a long time now--after all, her mother doesn't--and is all alone.Then there's Fostino, a 19-year-old boy in the Homeland Guard. Charlotte describes him as having exotic looks, and has a crush on him. He always comes across as being a "true believer," or someone who believes in what the Party (the dictator's government) does.The first chapter is more of a prologue, giving us a view in what's happening at the moment. And then the second chapter and onwards describes how it all started. From then on, we start understanding what's happening more and more. Through each chapter, we see what led Charlotte to make the choices we see in the first chapter. This goes on until the end of Part One, where we catch up to right before the events of the first chapter.Right around the middle of the book there's Part Two, that starts where the first chapter left off. From then on we know the whole background and everything, and that's where the real action begins. Not that there isn't action during Part One--there is--but since there doesn't have to be much explaining about history and how things got as bad as they did, there's more room for action.I really liked the set up. The author gave us a tease in the first chapter that keeps us wanting to read more. Charlotte was a strong character who questioned why they were doing what they were doing. The beginning of Part One was a little slow at times, mostly because the author was explaining the history and the goings-on of the time period. And that's understandable. It is, after all, the year 2072.The book is mostly action, but the author manages to have some romance in there. Fostino and Charlotte fall in love with each other, but Charlotte doesn't know if she can fully trust him. At times I felt as if Fostino and Charlotte's romance happened really quickly, since it kind of escalated rather quickly.There were also some inconsistencies in the book. They were minor, but they still distracted me a little. There's a few occurrences where I was left wondering if I had read something right and, going back and re-reading, wondering why it said something different later on. One specific example is that in the beginning, Charlotte describes that she often caught Fostino looking at her, sometimes even catching his eye when she was laughing with her friends. However, a little while later, Charlotte says she doesn't have any friends and that she grew up alone.Even with the minor inconsistencies, this book kept me interested enough to keep turning the pages and wanting to know what Charlotte was going to do and how the book was going to end.The book, being part of a series, ends with some problems resolved and some bigger ones ready for resolving in the next book of the series.I recommend this book for people who like light versions of post-apocalypse novels (Post-Apocalypse Lite? :D) with action and some romance sprinkled in.