Lezersrecensie
A teenage romance
Twelve or thirtheen year old me loved this book! I remember borrowing it from the library in Dutch, knowing it was one of the first YA novels I read (as opposed to books for older children) and I was very proud at this step. I did not yet know about my love and passion for (YA) dystopian novels, films and series, but I would discover that quite quickly after reading this novel. I remember absolutely loving this book and being hyped about the lay-out and the disastrous plotline, but I never got around to reading the rest of the series.
When I was scrolling on my audiobook app, I found this book in English and decided now was finally the time to read this series. All books, the full story, and enjoy a good dystopian masterpiece. Until I found out that I did not enjoy the story as much as I did when I was younger. In fact, I unfortunately did not enjoy it at all. I partly blame this on the narration, since I thought the novel was very dramatically, over-the-top and annoyingly narrated, but that can only have so much influence on the reading experience.
Over the past few years, I have read tons of (YA) dystopias and watched even more dystopian shows and films. I even wrote my masters thesis on YA dystopias, so you could consider me interested in this genre, to say the least. I think that might have been the biggest problem here, since I now would not consider this novel to be categorised as dystopian. Sure, it contains elements of oppression by a political party and a sort of post-apocalyptic world, but it is definitely not the focus of the story at all. The romance between Juliet and Adam and the self-pity Juliet has are the main topics of this novel. The only thing that seems to be happening is Juliet completely panicking when even thinking about touching someone and the rest of the story is kind of built around that, while it should be the other way around.
What also kind of bothered me was the lack of world-building/environmental description. I was continuously guessing what the places looked like, where the characters were, etc. I had no clue at all what was happening and where and it confused me throughout the story. Vague and partial descriptions about the outside world were made, but no clear descriptions of the view or the destroyed world, even though that is one of the most important aspects of a post-apocalyptic dystopia.
To conclude: I am disappointed. In the book? Yes. But also in myself, for hyping myself up and setting high expectations when they were not truthful at all. When I'm reading dystopian fiction, I want it to be harsh and cruel and I want it to convey a clear message to the reader and the only message I could gather from this book was 'killing people hurts'. Would I recommend this book? Depends on what you're looking for, I guess. If you like teenage romance, then, yes! Go for it and enjoy it. If you really want to read a dark and terrible dystopia? No, I would choose another one.
When I was scrolling on my audiobook app, I found this book in English and decided now was finally the time to read this series. All books, the full story, and enjoy a good dystopian masterpiece. Until I found out that I did not enjoy the story as much as I did when I was younger. In fact, I unfortunately did not enjoy it at all. I partly blame this on the narration, since I thought the novel was very dramatically, over-the-top and annoyingly narrated, but that can only have so much influence on the reading experience.
Over the past few years, I have read tons of (YA) dystopias and watched even more dystopian shows and films. I even wrote my masters thesis on YA dystopias, so you could consider me interested in this genre, to say the least. I think that might have been the biggest problem here, since I now would not consider this novel to be categorised as dystopian. Sure, it contains elements of oppression by a political party and a sort of post-apocalyptic world, but it is definitely not the focus of the story at all. The romance between Juliet and Adam and the self-pity Juliet has are the main topics of this novel. The only thing that seems to be happening is Juliet completely panicking when even thinking about touching someone and the rest of the story is kind of built around that, while it should be the other way around.
What also kind of bothered me was the lack of world-building/environmental description. I was continuously guessing what the places looked like, where the characters were, etc. I had no clue at all what was happening and where and it confused me throughout the story. Vague and partial descriptions about the outside world were made, but no clear descriptions of the view or the destroyed world, even though that is one of the most important aspects of a post-apocalyptic dystopia.
To conclude: I am disappointed. In the book? Yes. But also in myself, for hyping myself up and setting high expectations when they were not truthful at all. When I'm reading dystopian fiction, I want it to be harsh and cruel and I want it to convey a clear message to the reader and the only message I could gather from this book was 'killing people hurts'. Would I recommend this book? Depends on what you're looking for, I guess. If you like teenage romance, then, yes! Go for it and enjoy it. If you really want to read a dark and terrible dystopia? No, I would choose another one.
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