Review: Mixed Results
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 25, 2013
This book starts off as a strong dystopian novel. However, as it goes on, it loses some of its punch. Some of the plot elements are too expected and some are too convenient. There are things that are introduced, but never explained (the structure of the cities, for instance, is mentioned several times, but then we're never told how that really works or what the difference is in the different areas). There are some sections of the story that are strung out and I found myself just wanting to get to the end and finish.I did not appreciate that the strong lead character goes into a catatonic state whenever tragedy strikes. Why is her reaction to grief to blank out and become useless? It seems out of character.I was also bothered by the animal attacks. Neither wolves nor lynx are prone to attacking humans, and particularly not groups of humans. The worst is the idea of a pack of wolves keeping a group of humans up trees overnight. That was totally unrealistic.The book also needs a fine-tooth editing. There are quite a few small errors, such the wrong tense, noun-verb mismatches, the wrong word (like when a sentence is re-written, but then not re-read). It's not enough to hurt the flow, and I understand that self-published authors often can't afford an editor, so I have learned to forgive a certain amount of this for good books.I did enjoy the book, but I didn't think it was a masterpiece. And I do have a strong appreciation of self-published authors who put themselves out there without a professional editor to help guide and shape the finished product, so this gets an extra star for that.