Review: 4.5 BLOODY STARS!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 19, 2013
BOOK REVIEW by Michelle - 4.5 BLOODY STARS!DisturbingDisturbingDisturbingI am not going to lie. This was a rather disturbing read in many places. L.W. Patricks is a very unpredictable writer, and violent.I am on the blog tour for this book and the genre is written up as YA...you have got to be kidding me, and dystopian. Well, I can see why other reviewers are placing the name The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner in the same sentence with this book. I don't agree, but I can see why.I don't get the dystopian part.Young children as young as nine years of age are thrown into an ARENA to fight to the death. There is an extra disturbing scene with three nine year old boys up against one eighteen year old boy and what is done before hand.GAHHhhHHhhhhh!!!!!The ages of the children make this in the YA bracket but not the story. This is a violent story that admittedly kept me turning the pages. Two Thirds of the book is mainly about a character named `Dog' and his survival and the tormenting by the evil Ryker.Tiberius is a character I both sympathized with and also wanted to shake him about, rattling that brain of his. I understand the fear but ....sometimes.....* shake shake*Patricks thinks up very creative and disturbing ways for the children to be pitted against each other, all in the name of underground betting.We get journal entries from the stories conscience.Street boys are pulled off the streets and children from homes are taken and brought to one of the most evil villains I have EVER read in a book.* cue the dark dramatic music *Ryker.Evil and feared are very understated words for this guy.Allegra is the slave girl who has witnessed too much, her body is pure and ripening to the age of being sold to the highest bidder. She is a tough girl, the medic for the survivor. She patches up the survivor for his next event.Dog meet Allegra.Ryker likes to deal in child slavery/ trafficking too, one of his extra curricular activities.In a kind of sick way , this book was addictive. The writing is very 3D in how it will make you feel. The pages will turn but the emotions going through you will steadily boil away.I am not sure how I feel about the latter third of this book. Patricks will twist you about in an even darker, frightening , deadly, fish bowl. We will be peering through the glass, watching the characters go through ........gahhhhhh!!!HELL and back.I really am having trouble placing how I feel about this read. I am fresh finishing it and I was telling hubby about some of the scenes last night and he was like, WT!!I was like...I KNOW!!! WT!!But at the same time, Patricks really holds the reader almost captive with our curiosity for the HEA.This is not a story about romance.This is a story that is the most dark and twisted story I have read to date. Yet, I stayed. I kept reading.An interesting ending.A sad informative journal entry will give us some answers , yet leaves us wondering.Patricks is very unpredictable with who he allows to be the next books survivor, the ones to make it to those pages.There is this ???? something with the title of this book, that adds more to this story. More mystery.This book is 149 pages on my ereader, but it is literally packed with disturbing scenes and violence and moments where you want to shake certain characters and scream at them through the fish bowl.I was literally tapping away on the glass screaming...NOOooooOooooo.*F Bomb*I rate this book highly as it did make me feel , the word entertained is not the right word for me as I am not into violent reads, but it kept me holding the ereader and reading. It kept me almost a prisoner.To me that is good writing.I am still disturbed, lol! but to Patricks credit, he did bring a story that will stay with me. I can't imagine Patricks ever being the type of writer to be happy writing a lovey dovey contemporary. There almost feels like a dark side to him.This book will certainly not be everybody's cup of tea , but I am glad in a way that I got to experience Patricks writing.Predictable...he ain't.Creatively violent...he is.Just look at the cover.Michelle