I am more and more getting into dystopian novels so I was thrilled to join in this tour. I love books that are in series, too so I was doubly excited.

That being said, I was very confused reading the first half of the book. It goes back and forth between two characters, the past and the present, and I wasn't picking up on that at all. I was also disappointed that the editing wasn't better, something that really bugs me. I'm by no means a writer and by no means do I know or follow all the grammatical rules out there, but I kept seeing little things pop up that slowed down the story line for me because I was distracted by the errors.

Another thing that kept bugging me was Riley kept acting way too mature for her 16 year old age, from the very beginning. Her friend tells her that her sister was murdered, and she thanks him, telling him how hard that must have been for him to tell her the truth. Come on, seriously? Your sister was just killed and you are telling your friend how hard it must be for HIM? Do you know any adults that would have the presence of mind to say such a thing in that situation, let alone a teenager?

All in all though, the story is a good one, has lots of twists and turns to keep things interesting, but the story is really only good the last 1/3.

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I got this book & the rest of the books in the series as part of the Perimeter blog tour in exchange for my honest reviews. ( )

I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic novels. Unfortunately, this book was so disjointed I couldn't even figure out what was going on, so I gave up and stopped reading. I can't recall doing that for a very long time. There is something to the storyline, the book just needs a major edit. ( )

I had just really bland feelings about this one. I thought it had real undeveloped potential, and maybe that had to do with the fact that it was self-published, and needed and editor to push things along a bit. The plot idea was interesting, and the idea of the two narrators could have been dynamic, but it fell flat--Eleanor's storyline was so disconnected (until 85%) that it seemed completely odd and unnecessary. When it did finally come together, it seemed rushed, because it lacked any buildup of tension or, frankly, much emotion.

The relationship between Luc and Riley was much the same. I liked them, as people, but the idea of a romance between them wasn't believable. The mystery they were chasing seemed to be dropped flat on its face, as well.

On a technical note: I love and highly support the idea of self-publishing, but if you're going to do it, you HAVE to copy-edit your manuscript really, really well. Or at least run it through Word's grammar check. This author has a relationship with commas that I've not seen in all my years of editing; it was really bizarre and distracting. There were a few other grammatical errors and typos, too, but they weren't as big a deal.

More on this and other reviews on fefferbooks.com!

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Everything has consequences. All actions are linked. That is the way [Shalini Boland] manages the novel [Outside]. This post-apocalyptic story takes place in England after a worldwide rash of terrorist attacks. The country has been divided into numerous walled cities of various stature and safety.

The twists and turns in this book will leave you wanting to find out more. I really enjoyed this story. I received it as a give away as part of the [Shattered World] books. I really recommend this book to anyone who likes dystopian novels. ( )