Tracy Hewitt Meyer

“Generation Annihilation” written by Tracey Hewitt Meyer is marketed as a mystery-horror book. Main character, Shaun Treadway, runs away from home after murdering his stepfather and runs off to an empty town of Blackthorn Peak where his grandfather once lived—where he wanders to the ever so creepy “haunted” Asylum where he meets a strange and lonely girl, Cassidy. There, he and the few other people try to work together to figure out what’s going on in the isolated town. Generation Annihilation was a very good book to read; it was a bit slow at times, however, it was a pretty interesting read.
I really liked the descriptive imagery, I felt like I was able to fully immerse myself into the town of Blackthorn Peak, like I was beside Shaun and the other narrators. I thought the multiple POV’s were an interesting idea for this kind of book, and it could have been executed well if one of the villains of the story wasn’t also featured as a main narrator. I felt like the story would’ve held up better if she (Esther Richter) didn’t have her own dedicated chapters as it just laid all of the dramatics out there and spoiled all the mystery from the reading experience. 
Other things I didn’t really care for was the super rushed conclusion we were given for the “happy ending” for the teens and how the last chapter was told through Dr. Esther Richter’s mind. I would have much preferred an open ending where the readers could wonder and make their own conclusions to where she was/went to during the destruction of the Asylum. Also, we don’t ever find out why Gibbon was so keen on rescuing Shaun from the Asylum and not his own children—in fact, I didn’t like how Gibbon was this creepy dude that always asked for “favors” to get some weird special treatment from Richter. That just seemed too weird to put into this kind of book. And what was with Cassidy’s dad just blurting how Shaun’s step dad was his cousin? I felt like that was just forced at the last minute to make things harder for Shaun to escape the Asylum. 
Overall, the book was interesting to read, very drawn out in some parts (like when Shaun and the other teens were in The Room, drugged and just forced to sit there like statues because their body was literally frozen for several chapters). I suppose I would read another book from this author (although probably nothing from the rest of this books series as it wasn’t really for me) just because I love the vivid descriptions. I’d give this book three stars. 
** eARC provided by LibraryThing and BHC Press in exchange for an honest review **… (meer)

This was my first book of this year that I stayed up past midnight to read. From the description I expected more development of Shaun with the stepfather and the fire, however we were through that in the first couple pages. The beginning was captivating and I was drawn in immediately, the middle took a little more work to get through, but the back third we were off to the races again as I was so intrigued to find out who all of these people are, what are they doing and where do we go from here. Even though the end wasn't necessarily a cliffhanger with unresolved storylines, it was left open enough to hint that we may see these disturbed teens again. Dystopian YA series have been a very popular genre for many years now and is only getting more popular. I think this has the potential to be a great series.… (meer)

[2.25]

It may be a super quick read with a semi-interesing plot to capture you're attention, but I'm afraid that's all you'll find here.

I've read quite a few books that struggle with "show don't tell", but this may be the worst offender I've ever come across. In a story that should be packed with action, 90% of it is characters sitting around explaining the plot to each other. In one instance, a character explains for 3 pages what we just spent the previous chapter reading. It was incredibly tedious.

Clearly this is meant to be the set up for a series, and the author felt like a lot of groundwork needed to be laid down, but the dialogue plot dumps were just too heavy handed for me.

I was provided an ARC of Generation Annihilation in exchange for my honest review.… (meer)