Ruination

Ruination - Amanda Thome Fans of Dystopian novels-here is a new book to check out. Fans of the Hunger Games and Divergent will be able to quickly relate to parts of this new series.

Nessa is a teen girl in a harsh world. The book starts off with her as a young girl and entails one of the saddest first chapters I have ever read. With her mother gone, she is forced to grow up quickly to protect her younger sister. She lives in s survivalist world where school lessons include things like how to make snares and track animals.

Everyone's future is set and decided by a one day test. The top male and female student gets the opportunity to move to Central (she lives in Inner and their is also Outer which is even harsher)and live a better life. It is the dream of every teen. Nessa hopes to make it with her best friend, and romantic interest, Garrett. They have trained hard for years for this day. However the unexpected arrival of Ty could change everything for everyone.

Things are not as they seem and Nessa has a lot of life changes in this book. One big annoyance I have with her is her easy flips. From her thoughts on Garrett, her attitude toward her government and her belief of the foreigners. I felt she was a bit naive and accepts many things too easily without question (even to herself). It sometimes made it hard to appreciate her.

Garrett's perspective was brief, compared to Nessa or Ty, and I wish I could have gotten a better feel fro him. Ty I didn't care for at first and his behavior seems to be selfish on one level yet utterly selfless on another leaving me with very mixed emotions.

The romantic aspects of this book are light for the majority of the book and then at the end it was over the top and shoved in my face to the point I felt it took away from the pace of the story. So until the last few chapters it was ideal. Although I am getting a bit burnt out of the love triangles.

The story is nicely written with and overall good pace. The chapters are short and can be nice for easy pause breaks in reading for those that hate stopping mid-chapter. The world leaves me curious to learn more. I am eager to read the next book, especially after the cliffhanger ending this one has. Final rating: 3.5 stars

*I was given a digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair/honest review.*