Wow! I have to admit it took me a while to get into this book, but mostly because my laptop was on it's last legs and I did not have an e-book reader. But I recently got a new laptop and I was able to read the story comfortably. Anyway, the story is very powerful and has many of the elements I enjoy reading - some mystery, danger, action, and psychological drama. What I didn't really expect was the politically charged nature of the story. Once I got into the story, it was truly gripping and I just had to keep reading. I would have liked a better ending for Akiah, but I can see how this is not a "happily ever after" kind of story. The real happy ever after here is the countries of the world working together to help solve the problem of global warming. There were some issues with the writing, like the character development. I felt like he did a decent job of providing Sonja and Darcy with some depth, but so many of the others were flat. It would have added so much to develop some of the characters, especially Akiah and Kali. Good story - just sorry it took me so long to read. ( )

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Sonya Adams is a model who thinks she's on her way to another catalog shoot. On arrival, however, she discovers the modeling job was just a set up for a kidnapping! Her abductors are members of a group environmental extremists who live a minimalist lifestyle as a means of reducing their carbon emissions, and they hope to use Sonya to draw attention to their message.

Primitivehas a very interesting concept: a cult-like group of environmentalists kidnap a model, a symbol of modern indulgence, for propaganda purposes. Global climate change is definitely a relevant issue, and the book depicts the spread of ideas through the internet and modern television coverage very believably. Unfortunately, the book has some major issues with getting its points across.

The biggest problem with Primitive is the characters. There is very little development, and most are one-dimensional stereotypes. The "underground" of activists depicted in the novel are all pot-smoking hippie cliches with names like "Kodiak," "Calypso," "Sorrell," and "Lotus." There's also the rebellious daughter, the evil military commander, and the "bad-ass" above-the-law bounty hunter with the ridiculous name of "Johnny Bracer."

The author also has a bad habit of using sentence fragments. Like this. For emphasis. Political messages are also hit over the head by the story. For example, all the law enforcement and military characters are above the law and all too ready to abuse their power in pursuit of potential "terrorists."

While the issue of climate change is a major issue, as are current US military operation, Primitive is so full of stereotypes that it is hard to take any of the book's messages seriously.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Where do I start?
There was so much in ‘Primitive’ that I didn’t like, didn’t understand, couldn’t suspend my disbelief for, or just found offensive.

American cultural hegemony is reaching a point where it seems as if citizens of the USA can be outraged by the innocent behaviour of people of other cultures, while they themselves clumsily trample all over the sensitivities of others. There are two aspects of this in ‘Primitive’ which astounded me with their ignorance and nastiness. No one in Australia (where I live) would dare call a place ‘Aboland’ unless they were determined to cause outrage and upset in as many people as possible. It is an appallingly offensive choice of name, and made me cringe every time I read it. The second was the dreadful way Canadians were spoken of by the US military and FBI. I can’t for a moment imagine that that was a fair way for FBI agents and the US military to be depicted. Torture? Of their own people? In a way that could never be hidden? Oh, please. It seems such an ugly way to make a point.

It’s hard to imagine so many one-dimensional characters. Just in the opening chapters, there was the driven careeer woman, her rebellious daughter, the ‘Prada’ boss, the gay assistant, the lone wolf bounty-hunter. And so it goes on. And the names of the hippies! I was waiting for Mudbrick or Cowdung to make an appearance.

How do hippies in a commune, living a primitive ‘back to nature’ life (with an underground - literally- digital film editing suite and high-speed internet upload facility; oh, yeah) have a mortgage on truth? For goodness sake, their minds would be too addled from all the ‘herb’ in the story to know the difference between methane and a lentil fart.

Ultimately, I think the only character I liked even a little bit was Tip/Wenona. There’s even a chance she won’t grow up to be such a dead-head as the others in the story.

Enough! Now for two (sort of) positives: 1. I managed to read it all the way through. In a masochistic sort of way I suppose I wanted to see what else I could find ludicrous or offensive. 2. The episodes where Sonya was crawling through that very narrow tunnel, and getting stuck, I found particularly unnerving. But that may have more to do with my own phobias than anything else.

Just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean it couldn’t become a successful TV series. They’ll just have to tone down some of the torture. Otherwise it’s no less brain-dead than a lot of other stuff on TV that parades as drama. ( )

Take a model who symbolizes American consumerism, mix in one extreme primitive group with their own agenda. throw in a daughter with a shaky relationship with her mother. Add a government with their own agenda and a bounty hunter into the mix and what you have is a thriller that will keep you turning pages. Sonya Adams is a middle age model who is kidnapped and used as a spokesperson for an extreme environmental group. They count on her former career to get their environmental message across. Darcy is sonya's daughter and she is determined to rescue her mother even though they have not had the best relationship. Suddenly both mother and daughter find themselves fighting to survive. They are caught between the terrorists on one side and the government on the other side. Both sides believe they are in the right. This is an excellent must read book. Although I usually read and review young adult books, it is a book like Primitive that leads me back to adult books. ( )

It took a number of attempts for me to make it through Primitive, while the story has an interesting basis the characters never quite meshed and the writing made the experience stodgy and difficult to push through. It's certainly not something I'll be going back to read again at any point, which is something of a shame as the core ideas are strong. ( )