Review: Dystopian with a romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2014
Jessica has seen her world be destroyed around her by monsters. When Jessica and her friend Cindy sneak into town for supplies, Cindy is too emotional and is killed right in front of Jessica. Jessica has to mask her emotions so the creatures that look like humans but aren’t will not kill her too. She escapes and ends up leaving the city hoping that she is not the last human left. When she thinks there is no hope left, she finds some answers.So I went into this book expecting a dystopian survival story, and yes it was definitely that. But it was also much more a romance than anything else. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining because I do love myself some romance, I was just surprised. The book dealt with the destruction of man, society as we know it crumbling, death and hurt, but also hope and love and need.I did have a few small problems with the story, but they were not huge issues to detract from my overall like of the book. I am sure I am being picky, but I was confused about Cindy. I wanted to know who she was to Jessica, was she someone she already knew? Or did they find each other after everyone was dead? And if that is the case, then how did they know the other was human? The book starts with Jessica and Cindy trying to get supplies and Cindy being killed in front of Jessica, but I wanted a little more back story about how she and Cindy survived beforehand. And Jessica kept saying that Cindy would never leave the city, but never why Cindy wouldn’t leave the city. I was also really confused about the blades on the male aliens’ arms. I could not get a real picture of what they looked like or how they functioned because the description was a little vague and changed a little each time. I knew the blades existed, there were quite a few of them, and they were deadly, but that is all I am positive of. I really wanted to know how they evolved metal in their bodies over time to form the blades, and where all the blades went when not out. Did the arms look normal or really bulky? I really enjoyed the book, I just kept stewing on these insignificant details and would love to have my questions answered.Jessica was the main character of the book and it was told from her eyes. She was fairly emotionless and methodical in the first part of the book. She had such good instincts and I rooted for her to survive. When she met the others, and especially Blade, she became incredibly emotional. I didn’t know if it was her normal personality or if she just had bottled it in so much she couldn’t help herself. Her instant hatred to Blade was understandable after everything she went through, yet when she got to know him, she had bursts of hate that had no real substance based on what she knew of him. She was really an emotional mess who jumped to conclusions, but she kept it all in her head and her actions were still the strong survivalist I grew to love. I understand why Jessica loved Blade that was incredibly obvious, because he was strong and capable and wonderful, as well as attractive. I just could not quite wrap my mind around why he loved her. I mean really, she was rude, disrespectful, judgmental, hurtful, and violent towards him, yet he had a soft spot for her anyway. She was described as being kind of regular looking with frizzy hair, but there was another girl in the house who was really nice and looked like a model, but nobody wanted her? Hmmm. I felt like their relationship went incredibly fast, without a lot of time to get to know each other. At times, I kind of felt like Jessica might deserve to do some groveling, but Blade was a much more forgiving person than me. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Jessica, and she completely redeemed herself at the end for all her moments of overreacting, but at times it seemed like she was too into herself and not aware of the others.The ending had a sense of hope to it. Technically this could be a stand-alone book, but I really hope not. I want another journey to this world of destruction, aliens and love. I will most certainly read more about these characters and more from this author.I received this book from Goodreads and the author in exchange for my honest review.