Review: Okay Story, But Really Confusing.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2013
(Source: Downloaded from Amazon.co.uk for free.)16-year-old Wisteria lives in a dystopian world inhabited by Zombies. Her home on the Isle of Smythe is zombie free though, and she lives there with a couple of hundred other people.Wisteria wants to be a tracker, and spends her work time off of the Isle, watching out for the zombies (or fleshers), and `curing' them - killing them with poisoned arrows or a bullet to the head.With only 2 sightings in the last 6 months, the people of the island decide to have a fun run, which Wisteria thinks is crazy. She's proved totally right two when two girls leave the approved race route and go shopping for makeup in an abandoned store instead.Wisteria tracks and confronts the two girls, but ends up chased by fleshers, and has to leave the building from a second story window.Luckily for Wisteria she is spotted by a boy called Bach and rescued. What Wisteria doesn't know though is that Bach is not human - he is from an alien planet, and these aliens are able to brainwash humans into becoming their servants.What does the future hold in store for Wisteria? Why does Bach feel like he's met her before? And which is worst - being killed by zombies, or being brainwashed by aliens?This was an interesting mix of post-apocalyptic, paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi, and romance genres, but I did get a bit confused, especially towards the end.Wisteria was an okay character, although I was surprised at how much she allowed other people to walk all over her. Whilst tracking Zombies she came across as a very strong personality, but faced with school bullies she just collapsed.Bach was the sort of person who held everything back, and didn't let his true feelings show. It was a little difficult to read him at times, but I liked the way he followed his instincts and didn't try to enthral Wisteria.The storyline was okay, but it was here that I started to get a little confused. There was mention of this special coral that Bach's people used to travel to earth, and they were horrified to find that there was some on the Isle of Smythe, and went to great lengths to go there and get it. I found it quite difficult at first to work out why this was so important, especially considering that the humans didn't even seem to know what or where it was.I also got confused over the term `Red Phoenix', which wasn't in the glossary at the front of the book. I'm not sure whether I just missed the part where this was explained or if it wasn't explained, but even having finished the book I still don't understand what it means, or why it is important which is really frustrating, as it turned out to be really key to the storyline.There was some romance in this book although it was pretty minimal. Wisteria and Bach did seem to slowly develop feelings for each other, although in the beginning Bach was sure that they had met previously. There were special terms thrown around concerning Wisteria and Bach's relationship, but I wasn't overly sure what these meant either, which again made it very difficult to understand what was going on, and by the end I really didn't care either.Overall; this was an okay story which covered a mix of genres, but I just found too much of it confusing to be able to really enjoy it.6 out of 10.