Review: Beyond Comparison
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
I was given this book as a gift because I LOVED the Hunger Games and after seeing a few of the reviews on Goodreads, I thought I'd like to give it a go.I'll be honest, I was a bit doubtful of the comparisons to the Hunger Games that seemed to come up over and over.  And I was correct in that respect.  Beyond the fight to the death style of tournament that is the central focus of the story and the age of the main characters, I didn't find too much in common with the popular series.  And that was a GOOD thing.The world of the 2018 Series is a dystopian hell where the New Government owns the people in a disturbingly realistic system of life and death.  There is a tournament where they recruit the citizens into a brutal murder-fest, which was handled with a sense of the macabre that I couldn't help but enjoy.  The characters are flawed and more realistic that many I've seen in these sort of stories.  I was invested in their plights, in the conflicts and victories of the main four.  I couldn't put this book down and know that I will happily re-read it when its time for book 2!