2/5 stars
Synopsis
Warning! This section contains spoilers, if you would like to avoid these spoilers, jump to the review below.
The book started with an introduction to the main character, Abigail, and the world.
There was an incident at Abigail’s work that made her worried that she would get in trouble. The next day someone from the government stopped by her house and gave her an invitation to something called the Reaping.
Abigail went to the Reaping, and ten names were called. She was one of the names called. However, she was able to get out of the Reaping because of the invitation she received.
She was then taken to a room to wait for the Reaping. Abigail heard a scream, and when she investigated, it was the woman who had given her the invitation. She had been mortally injured because of the invitation she gave to Abigail.
She finds out that the dying android woman was the leader of a secret resistance, and that she was giving the leadership to Abigail.
Abigail then discovered that she had been selected as the wife of a random man.
There was someone who was killed by an android while Abigail and her future husband (Calvin) were walking.
After that, they went to a different location and had a close call with a watcher, a type of camera robot. They kissed, then Calvin took her to a secret place to show her music.
Abigail and Calvin got into an argument.
A woman broke into the apartment and said that she was taking Abigail to the border. On the way to the border, the group was attacked by a special type of android.
The person who attacked them told Abigail that she was her mother. Then her mother betrayed her, and it turns out her mother was an awful person. Her mother told her to cooperate or else, and showed her Calvin. Calvin had been beaten. Then a few pages later Calvin came running to her, uninjured, and asked her to trust him. And then they kiss.
Calvin revealed Eldridge was burning.
Another person who Abigail knew took her to a shack and she put the chip she got in the beginning of the book in a slot. A door opened to reveal a mass of metal and flesh. The person who took her there explained that that mass of metal and flesh was the first person to create a sentient android. He also said that the creators of androids had a fear that the androids would rise up and take over everything, so they put a failsafe in. The failsafe was blood, specifically the blood of the first man who created the androids. He said that the resistance had been trying for years to wake up the person. They were unsuccessful. He told the main character that the reason the two sides were fighting over her was because the person who created the androids was her father. She cut herself, bled on her father, and he was revived.
Review
This book had potential. It definitely had potential. I thought the premise of the story was interesting. I liked the descriptions and words used at times. I really enjoyed reading a few parts of this book, just because of the way the words were put together. The story premise was definitely interesting—lower class individual embarking on the path to overthrow the ruling class—and I would have loved to see it executed better. Unfortunately, I felt like the author was confused as to what the plot was exactly.
First off, I was confused through most of the story. I felt like the world/society should have been more fleshed out. I didn’t know until a ways into the book that humans were ruled by androids. I was confused as to why the main character was referred to as “human” instead of person.
I felt like the characters were not fleshed out well. The character that I felt was most compelling was Calvin. Ivan seemed…confused. I felt like he didn’t know what he stood for. Abigail seemed childish and weak. She didn’t seem like she wanted to fight for her life even though she frequently said she would fight for her life. That was an issue throughout the book. The author told the reader things, but didn’t show them. The result of telling not showing was a weak book and weak characters. It would have been better if Abigail actually resisted. Instead, she went meekly along with everything. The only time that she resisted was when her name was called at the Reaping and she said she had an invitation, so she couldn’t be Reaped. But I felt like that scene also reinforced the impression that she was weak. When her name was called, she fell to her knees and vomited over and over. That was at the beginning of the book, so there was definitely room for her to grow throughout it, but I didn’t feel like she did. I didn’t feel like she had to make any hard decisions. Even at the end, she asked Ivan what was the safest choice for her. It would have been better if she forged her own path, if she took a risk.
The world building was lackluster. I mentioned earlier that I had no idea that humans were enslaved by androids. The author said at the beginning that farmers were beneath orphans, but didn’t say androids ruled everything. How did that happen? When did that happen? What exactly are the androids? At the end of the book, it was implied that androids were once human. But it also said that the androids were created. Which was it? The book’s world building definitely needed work.
One weakness of the book was no antagonist. The issue with the book having no antagonist is there was nothing to drive Abigail forward. The beginning of the book seemed to set up a particular android as the antagonist, but a few pages later, that android was nowhere to be found. I guess the author was setting up the androids to be the big antagonists, but it is usually not effective to have the antagonist be a big amorphous group. In the Writer’s Digest 6 Ways to Write Better Bad Guys article by Laura DiSilverio, it says that writers should avoid making the bad guy be an abstraction because it makes the antagonist distant and unrelatable. That was the exact issue with this book. I didn’t care about the antagonist. I didn’t care about Abigail either. The danger to her didn’t have a face, so it didn’t really feel like she was in danger.
The other issue I had with the book (this issue ties into world building) were the vague mentions of the border. The border of…what? City? State? Country? What was beyond the border? Why was it so scary to be sent there? The book mentioned multiple times that the people who were Reaped were sent to the border. Why? There was also a few mentions of a war at the border. A war with who? With what? The border was set up to be something important, but it wasn’t given the detail needed to make it important.
Another issue with world building I had was the androids were supposed to be bound by the Eldridge Pact. What was the pact? I had no clue. I didn’t know if the androids were actually following the pact, or if they weren’t. The author should have at least shared some details of the pact so the reader could know what was wrong with the society, if anything. Especially because at the end of the book, one of the characters said that the androids broke the pact immediately after it was implemented. It would have been nice to actually know what the pact was, especially considering the book is named after it.
The book had potential, but unfortunately, the author didn’t put enough into it to make it a good story.
Fireheart Books 