Kayla OlsonCritiques

OMG! where do I even start? I absolutely loved the book, can't say much quite yet but I can't wait for other's to read this book once it's officially published!

When the world is taken over by a brutal ruling body that controls the planet's resources, Eden resolves to survive by finding her way to a neutral island where her efforts to track down a friend are challenged by enemies and traps.

This dystopian novel made for a fast-paced, highly compelling read. Opening in the middle of an escape, the narrator Eden finds herself fleeing from the barracks she's been confined to with three other girls she's never met before and isn't certain she can trust. They use the sailboat they escaped in to find Sanctuary Island, a place supposed to be a refuge from a warring world. However, when they find the island, things are not what they appear - one member of their group disappears, the plants attack them, optical illusions abound, and soon the girls aren't the only ones on the island. Overall, this is a book that's hard to put down - it reads like a thriller from beginning to end and makes for a satisfying tale.

FROM AMAZON: Before the war, Eden’s life was easy. Then the revolution happened, and everything changed.

Now a powerful group called the Wolfpack controls the earth and its resources. And even though Eden has lost everything to them, she refuses to die by their hands. She knows the coordinates to the only neutral ground left in the world, a place called Sanctuary Island, and she is desperate to escape to its shores.

Eden finally reaches the island and meets others resistant to the Wolves. But the solace is short-lived when one of Eden’s new friends goes missing. Braving the jungle in search of their lost ally, they quickly discover Sanctuary is filled with lethal traps and an enemy they never expected.

This island might be deadlier than the world Eden left behind, but surviving it is the only thing that stands between her and freedom.

I found this book hard to get into, like I had to force myself to keep going. The plot was okay, I just didn't find the characters likeable and the story got confusing.

I got this book in one of my Owlcrates. This seems to be a stand alone book, but the ending didn’t tie things up very well. I went through a dystopia reading phase a few years ago and am still burned out from it; it’s not my favorite genre and this addition to the genre was mediocre at best.

I enjoyed the way the book started but once the characters get to the island and got involved with all these different competing factions the book became like a lot of other YA dystopian novels I have read.

The characters were really one dimensional and I didn’t really enjoy them. A ton of characters are added in the last third of the book. The plot starts to get so convoluted that it was a bit hard to follow and just plain boring. It really didn’t hold my interest and I almost stopped reading the book 400 pages in but decided to go ahead and push through.

The style of writing is very easy to read and there were some good action scenes towards the beginning of the story. It just couldn’t hold my interest all the way through

Overall an okay YA dystopia/post-apocalyptic novel but not great. I enjoyed the beginning of the book but my attention really drifted towards the end and I almost stopped reading it. There are some neat ideas in here to start but it ended up being a pretty typical dystopian story by the end.

Before the war, Eden's life was easy. Then the revolution happened, and everything changed. Now a powerful group called the Wolfpack controls the earth and its resources. And even though Eden has lost everything to them, she refuses to die by their hands. She knows the coordinates to the only neutral ground left in the world, a place called Sanctuary Island, and she is desperate to escape to its shores. Eden finally reaches the island and meets others resistant to the Wolves. But the solace is short-lived when one of Eden's new friends goes missing. Braving the jungle in search of their lost ally, they quickly discover Sanctuary is filled with lethal traps and an enemy they never expected. This island might be deadlier than the world Eden left behind, but surviving it is the only thing that stands between her and freedom.