This is something of a light dystopian/science fiction novel written in a simple style that young teenagers might find appealing. The concept was interesting enough, but the execution fell a bit flat. There were far too many mild romance scenes inserted randomly throughout that detracted from the story. There were also too many unanswere questions or missed opportunities for extended world building. The characters also have done with a bit more personality and conflict - especially the group of secondary characters. They came across as docile sheep, following whatever instructions are given without question and not even twitching when they find out their world wasn't what they thought it was. The writing of the first half of the novel was a bit stilted, almost like a novice writer. The second half picked up pace and intensity. This wasn't a bad book, but it could have been better. ( )

I received this eARC from Bleeding Ink Publishing on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of this book in any way.

You know those books that are so generic that it's clear the author just wanted to have a book written but didn't care what it was about as long as it sold? Well, this is the opposite. It's an author who really wanted to tell a story but had no idea how to actually write a book.

Obligatory Summary

Genesis and her band of faceless masses all live in a world with unpredictable weather, left there by some unseen entity to fight for their survival.

Our world runs in cycles that change like a person shaking one of the snow globes we found in the storage room in the bunker when we were kids. Two days of Spring, a week of Summer, four days of Fall, followed by a month of Winter. Most days, I wouldn't mind if our world fell off whatever shelf it is sitting on, smashing the cycle.

She and her boyfriend, Jack, as well as some of her close friends all know that things are changing--Winter is getting longer, Summer shorter, and things are even more unpredictable than ever. But what if they have a spy, secretly relaying information back to whatever force put them there? And what if it's someone Genesis loves?

The Writing and Worldbuilding

Sounds kinda cool, right?

Wrong.

The book is so nonsensical that most of that was taken from the book's description. It isn't that it's a terrible story--it's far too simple to be truly bad--but it is poorly executed, with dismal pacing and utterly dreadful syntax. The verb tense constantly changed, the sentences were run-ons and awkward. Dialogue was...okay, but only for a few characters. Time passing was imperceptible (apparently the book takes place over a few days but it felt like a month at least) and the number of people in the bunker was apparently over 200 but it felt like there was 20 people max. And the retroactive exposition. Like suddenly introducing things 90 pages in that were supposed to be present since the very beginning.

It crashes into the wall making Jack jump as high as the water in the river over the rocks in the waterfall in Spring right after the snow melts.

There is a certain beauty to how bad it is.

The world itself made absolutely no sense. How on earth was anything able to survive with enough seasons in a year to equal 8 years? Plants don't just grow overnight. Animals require gestation (which takes time) to have offspring. There's a reason why ecosystems are a thing and why they're fragile. It is literally impossible for the entire premise of this book to exist.

It really just felt like I was reading a first draft that had never been presented to an editor or beta-readers. It had potential to not be terrible, but unfortunately, it was terrible.

He comes to me, quickly and slowly all at once.

The Characters

Genesis be like



Honestly, she's super bland. Like, extremely bland. And she is obsessed with Jack in the weirdest way. Like, thinking that his constant evasiveness is "adorable".

Jack is a creep with a lot of issues but I did appreciate the small degree of depth he brought.

Nathaniel, though, is apparently Jack's best friend even though he's consistently death glaring him, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he had murdered Jack.

Azra was really the only character I genuinely liked! She should have been the main character. She actually has a personality.

Eustace was introduced more than halfway through as if I already knew who he was and then wasn't really ever explained.

Conclusion

Just read Maze Runner. It isn't good but at least it's coherent. ( )

It took me forever but I finally finished this book. I wanted to like it very much. But, it was too much talking and not enough world building. The world that was there could have been awesome. I did finish- but didn't like it much. ( )

I wanted to like this book so badly but the story felt really flat-what little action occurred was poorly described and there was zero growth in the characters. Genesis' character seems solely defined by her relationship to Jack and nothing else. There weren't enough details to provide for solid world building and the characters were uninteresting. ( )