Review: Oh. My. God. LOVED this story.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2014
Oh. My. God. I really, really enjoyed this book. The sizzling blush of romance, the intricate world building, and the sardonic voice of our hero's POV combine to make a truly enjoyable read.This is a dystopian future YA romance, similar in feel to Divergent but with a much more functional - if still totalitarian and brutal - society. Think Rebel without a Cause crossed with Brave New World.The boy from the wrong stratum falls for the girl from the upper echelon of society whom he has no business even talking to, let alone falling in love with. When he saves her from harm, he gets skyrocketed into the limelight, and has to deal with the many levels and layers of fallout, and decide if love is worth the risks involved.The book starts fast without a lot of backstory or world building, and I found the first chapter slow to get through as the author sets a stage with a lot of terms and information but without the full backdrop. Not an info dump, per se, but rather a full immersion into the world of OMNI.Plunged into this dystopian society from the perspective of a boy at the lowest rung of the ladder, we see the gritty nuts and bolts of a rigid and regimented world. But then in later chapters, we see the same world from the perspective of upper strata...which are just as regimented in thought and action, and no where near as "free" as they appear from afar.It's a political thriller without the obvious politics. It's also a poke in the eye to our current 24/7 news cycle fixation on all the wrong aspects of what's "going on" in the world, while leaving the public woefully uninformed about all the really important machinations of government and business.My only problem with this story was that it ends too soon, leaving many threads dangling in midair. I'm not sure how many books are planned in this series, but you can bet that I'll be on the lookout for the next one to see what happens, and to find out if Pierce and Harmony ever get their Happily Ever After. Even dystopian heroes deserve to get the girl once in a while.If you enjoy dystopian YA with a cynical point of view, definitely check out OMNI by Andrea Murray.