Review: A dystopian novel that kept me turning pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2014
I rate this book 4.5 stars.My sister is a lover of dystopian young adult fiction.  She tells me that there are endless such books, ranging from terrific to terrible.  Aside from The Hunger Games, I have little experience with the genre, so when Irradiance crossed my reviewing desk, I thought I would see what the fuss was all about.Irradiance is set on the plane Sindra, where the adults are all telepathically linked through crystals embedded in their foreheads.  Maribel, the main character, has never had a problem going along to get along as a part of the so-called Community until her work as a scientist reveals information that powerful people would rather keep hidden.The premise and plot of this book hooked me from the beginning.  I was fascinated by the fictional planet Sindra, where mind reading is constant, talking out loud is rebellious, and everyone's feelings are literally written on their foreheads.  The rapid pace of events kept me turning my digital pages right to the end of the story.At times, however, the author did lose me in dense technical descriptions of Sindran technology, particularly that dealing with time/space travel.  The ending also felt a little abrupt, and I would have enjoyed more character development, mainly because I enjoyed the characters and wanted to know more about them.  Though my experience with books like these is limited, I found this book to be fun and readable, and I look forward to reading the others in this series.Lisa Runge (The Kindle Book Review)The reviewer received a free copy of this book in exchange for an independent, honest review.  She is not affiliated with the author or Amazon.