Author: Lindsay Cummings
Format Acquired: eARC
Publication Date: June 10 2014
Publishing House: Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 9780062220004
Source of Copy: Edelweiss
Summary:
An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young's Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.
Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.
The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is-although he doesn't know it- one of the MC's programmed assassins. Is their meeting coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?
Review:
Meadow was trained by her father to fight. Why? Because to secure a job for herself so she can feed her family, she'll have to pass a few tests and violence is key to passing. Enter Zephyr, unwitting assassin of The Murder Complex. He and Meadow form a bond but when he is, for lack of a better word, activated and attacks Meadow it puts a strain on their budding relationship and leads to secrets about her family and she realizes just how connected she is to the The Murder Complex.
The book has a really interesting concept, I was undoubtedly excited by the prospect of getting my hands on a copy of this pretty. That'll teach me to get my hopes up. This book was a total bummer because it was confusing. And boring. And I'm sorry but I really couldn't force myself to try to make sense of it.
I didn't like the dual POVs. I mean think about it, some of Zephyr and Meadow's chapters spanned a mere page. One. Page. One page is not enough to get inside a character's head and the constant switching between the two points of view? It made Zephyr and Meadow sound like the same person so much so that I had to keep an eye on the chapter headers. It was a little frustrating.
As for the characters? Boring. I couldn't form a connection with either of them and I think Meadow would be a pretty cool heroine if she were done better. She's a killer, trained since she was a child by her father to survive and fight. She loses that side of her when she falls for Zephyr. Because you know, insta love is definitely a thing in this book. Zephyr on the other hand, is a wimp. I'm not a fan of his, obviously, unless he turns into the mindless killer that he was programmed to be then yes. Go ahead. But here's the thing with Zephyr, I wasn't sure if he knew about himself being an assassin BUT there were scenes where all he wanted was to atone for the blood on his hands. So there's that I suppose.
I like romance as much as anyone, but too much of it can never be a good thing. In the first place, this book wasn't touted as 'romantic'. It says 'action-packed' and 'blood-soaked' but to have half of the book consumed by this totally unnecessary romance? No.
Aside from the that, and I never thought I'd say, this but this book had too much action. It got confusing because it's one scene after another of blood and death and running away and where nobody bothers to stop and ask WHY until I was halfway into the book. And that's just the thing! I was halfway into the book and I could not, for the life of me, figure out what was going on. Everything was a jumbled mess and the various revelations were too late or too conveniently dropped onto their laps. Too easy.
All in all, with dull characters, confusing plot and wholly unnecessary romance, I say seek your dystopian fix elsewhere.
Source of Copy: Edelweiss
Summary:
An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young's Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.
Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.
The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is-although he doesn't know it- one of the MC's programmed assassins. Is their meeting coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?
Review:
Meadow was trained by her father to fight. Why? Because to secure a job for herself so she can feed her family, she'll have to pass a few tests and violence is key to passing. Enter Zephyr, unwitting assassin of The Murder Complex. He and Meadow form a bond but when he is, for lack of a better word, activated and attacks Meadow it puts a strain on their budding relationship and leads to secrets about her family and she realizes just how connected she is to the The Murder Complex.
The book has a really interesting concept, I was undoubtedly excited by the prospect of getting my hands on a copy of this pretty. That'll teach me to get my hopes up. This book was a total bummer because it was confusing. And boring. And I'm sorry but I really couldn't force myself to try to make sense of it.
I didn't like the dual POVs. I mean think about it, some of Zephyr and Meadow's chapters spanned a mere page. One. Page. One page is not enough to get inside a character's head and the constant switching between the two points of view? It made Zephyr and Meadow sound like the same person so much so that I had to keep an eye on the chapter headers. It was a little frustrating.
As for the characters? Boring. I couldn't form a connection with either of them and I think Meadow would be a pretty cool heroine if she were done better. She's a killer, trained since she was a child by her father to survive and fight. She loses that side of her when she falls for Zephyr. Because you know, insta love is definitely a thing in this book. Zephyr on the other hand, is a wimp. I'm not a fan of his, obviously, unless he turns into the mindless killer that he was programmed to be then yes. Go ahead. But here's the thing with Zephyr, I wasn't sure if he knew about himself being an assassin BUT there were scenes where all he wanted was to atone for the blood on his hands. So there's that I suppose.
I like romance as much as anyone, but too much of it can never be a good thing. In the first place, this book wasn't touted as 'romantic'. It says 'action-packed' and 'blood-soaked' but to have half of the book consumed by this totally unnecessary romance? No.
Aside from the that, and I never thought I'd say, this but this book had too much action. It got confusing because it's one scene after another of blood and death and running away and where nobody bothers to stop and ask WHY until I was halfway into the book. And that's just the thing! I was halfway into the book and I could not, for the life of me, figure out what was going on. Everything was a jumbled mess and the various revelations were too late or too conveniently dropped onto their laps. Too easy.
All in all, with dull characters, confusing plot and wholly unnecessary romance, I say seek your dystopian fix elsewhere.
Rating:
I full on agree with you about some chapters being too short, I totally took not of it while I was reading TMC, I hated her writing style. SHe couldn't get a good grip on me so I fell asleep…I just read this book as quick as I could just to get over it. :P Great review!
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