Published by: Harper Teen
Released on: 1/20/15
Series: The Hatchery Series #1
Source: arc/book from publisher to review in exchange for my honest review
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase from: Amazon | B&N
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A hot debut trilogy and a riveting story of survival, courage, and romance in a future where creating a master civilization is the only thing prized, no matter the method. After the Omega (the end of the end), 16 year old guys known as LTs discover their overseers are raising them not to be soldiers (lieutenants) as promised, but to be sold as bait because of their Less Than status and hunted for sport. They escape and join forces with a girls’ camp, the Sisters, who have been imprisoned and experimented on for the "good of the Republic," by a government eager to use twins in their dark research. In their plight for freedom, these heroes must find the best in themselves to fight against the worst in their enemies.
Some times the best way to write a review for a book you're torn over, is to write that book a letter. So, I did just that.
Dear The Prey,
First things first. I really dig your cover. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to pick you up and read you. Followed by the fact your synopsis sounded interesting. Normally I'm not a big fan of dystopian books. It takes a lot to get me to love a dystopian book, and I was hoping you'd have that certain something. While you hooked me with your beginning, your ending made me glad I contained to give you a chance, but your middle lacked something that almost made me give up on you. A few times.
Let's talk about your beginning. That was a great introduction into your dangerous, and deadly world. I was hooked the moment a certain character was found,. I wanted to know more about him, and his story, which resulted in me wanting to know more about what the heck was going on in this crazy world. I got what you did there by making the less than perfect people of your society "the prey". I didn't like the discrimination, but I understood it in this world. I wanted nothing more than these characters to prove the others wrong. I liked everything was explained later on in the book, and how it was explained. That gave your story some good history.
Character wise, I won't give anything away, but I loved that you made those who society looked down upon as nothings, incredibly tough characters who persevered through a lot in order to survive. You seriously put some of your characters through hell, literally. Here's where I had a problem. While the beginning hooked me, the middle part of the book lost a lot of that excitement I first felt. Something happened along the way, and I felt that what started out strong in the story, fell flat. I felt like there was a shift in the writing that went from making me feel the urgency of what was going down, to feeling like I went from reading a YA book to a MG book one. That there's anything wrong with a MG book. You went from showing me, to telling me what I needed to feel. That took away my connection to your story. Once I lost that emotional connect to you, I stopped caring for the characters.
So why did I stick it out? Well to be honest, I stopped reading you a few times. Once I lost that connection, I didn't really care anymore. But, I had that hope that things would change. This after all is the first book in a series, and I know sometimes there's a lot that goes on into making sure the first book in a series right. After all you have to set everything up for the rest of the series. Maybe that took away from keeping your focus. Thankfully I was right about you. The last third of your story was awesome. It tied things together, got crazy action packed, and had me feeling like I was reading Lord of the Flies, meets The Maze Runnier, meets, I don't even know what.
You definitely didn't hold back. You weren't afraid to run your characters through the ringer. Just as I think things couldn't get worse for your characters, they do. You don't hold back on killing off characters, and you certainly don't hold back on unleashing the brutality of their world, on them. That trek your characters go on definitely proved that survival of the fittest, and the smartest in this world, will survive. This part had me rooting for the characters. You made it so I couldn't put the book down then, because I wanted to know what would happen next. In fact, that last third totally redeemed the story. I'm glad I stuck it out, because I would have missed out on all that happened. Oh, and those crazy plot twists, yeah, I didn't see those coming. Talking about some shocking secrets and betrayals.
Over all, I like what you did with the characters, and how they grew and evolved over the course of the story. Way to be action packed, and not hold back on all you through your characters's way. Especially during that ending. You definitely went all out. Romance wise, I had a hard time with it, and didn't find it believable at all. But, that's okay, since this isn't a story about romance. It's a story about survival and beating the odds stacked against you. It just happens to have a romantic element in it. Hopefully that element will be better in the next book. I definitely feels there's a lot of room for growth for it, as the series goes on.
Though I didn't love you like I wanted to, over all I thought you were a good read. Your ending has me looking forward to reading the next book in your series.
Love,
Your latest reader
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Interesting way to review this book! I like it! I had a lot of the same feelings. But I never connected with the characters at all. I also hated how it switched from first to third person. It felt disjointed to me and I didn't really understand the need for that, to be honest. Unfortunately, I was not drawn in enough to be up for he next book. I hope you like it!
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