JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

A genre-smashing story of survival, hope and love amid a ravaged earth.

A deadly flu has swept the globe, leaving a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, who are on a journey devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, who knows almost nothing of the world outside the old abandoned cinema he was raised in; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together.

David Arnold’s post-apocalyptic YA novel The Electric Kingdom is an ambitious saga, a unique twist on the frequently-tackled scenario that is the near eradication of humanity. After a swarm of flies, as yet unbeatable, descend on Earth and wipe out most of the population, few remain alive. We meet a cast of characters determined to survive in a barren wasteland, a ravaged world full of danger.

Not your stereotypical fantasy novel about the end-of-the-world, although perhaps a little familiar during current times, The Electric Kingdom is written in third person and switches between three characters — eighteen-year-old Nico, twelve-year-old Kit and the mysterious and unnamed Deliverer, whose role in this story doesn’t become clear until the end.

Readers will find themselves enthralled in the journey until the final pages.

“The room was quiet, the brush of a hand in his hair. Kit debated whether to tell her what he really thought: that when he stood at the open window of his art classroom, held a breeze in his face, he had long ago resigned himself to the reality that he would never know where that breeze came from, or where it was going.”

David’s writing style is quite stripped and minimalistic, which is ironic considering this book is over 400 pages. Dialogue is taut and clipped, and it works. Prose is seamless, with short sentences. David only reveals information that is absolutely necessary, and readers will appreciate it.

There’s a strange sort of atmosphere to this book, like there’s something larger at play and you know you won’t understand it until the end. Characters mention deja vu, like they’ve been through these events before. There are moments of fear and tension, but there are also some really tender, sweet moments between characters. Moments where you get an insight into how their lives might’ve been if the flu never happened.

Above all else, The Electric Kingdom is about taking chances, pursuing risks, the endurance humanity and survival — it’s about how determined some people are to outlast any threats to their safety. The Electric Kingdom is not about how the world ended, it’s about the people left behind as they navigate through this new world.

“When the entirety of one’s universe is an old boarded-up farmhouse, there is no greater treasure than a dusty shoebox full of photographs. All smiles and kisses and travels and meticulously positioned foods on butcher blocks. Nico’s favourites were the ones from her parents’ honeymoon in Italy.”

Admittedly, the secondary cast of characters do blend together in the book. When Kit and Nico’s journeys become embroiled with others, and we meet multiple other characters of a similar age, it was hard to tell them apart. Their voices didn’t feel overly unique, and their experiences were quite similar. When some of them died, I didn’t feel much of an emotional response.

And some of the most heightened moments in the book – particularly the father and son with violent intentions – come incredibly late in the novel. I would’ve preferred if David brought forward some of the bigger moments in the novel so they didn’t all hit right at the end.

“Dead towns galore. Kit was amazed at just how many, small and tucked away. These days, he felt more breeze than human, floating in and through all these little towns, on the lookout for dreamers, Knowers of Things in open windows, observing their little worlds, wondering What (if anything) Lay Beyond.”

Recommended for teenage readers and young adults.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Electric Kingdom
David Arnold
February 2021
Text Publishing

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth

They were the Chosen Ones. Saving the world made them heroes. Saving it again might destroy them.

When Sloane Andrews and her friends defeated the Dark One, and saved the world, it nearly cost them everything. Ten years later, they are still struggling to put the battle behind them and reclaim their lives. After all, the rest of the world has moved on . . . so why can’t they?

Of the five, Sloane has had the hardest time adjusting. Everyone else blames the PTSD – and her huge attitude problem – but really, she’s hiding secrets from them . . . secrets that keep her tied to the past and alienate her from the only four people in the world who understand her.

On the tenth anniversary of the Dark One’s defeat, something unthinkable happens: one of the Chosen Ones dies. When the others gather for the funeral, they discover the Dark One’s ultimate goal was much bigger than they, the government, or even prophecy could have foretold – bigger than the world itself.

Last time, it took everything she had. This time, it might not be enough.

Veronica Roth’s Chosen Ones is a standalone fantasy novel that reimagines the stereotypical plot device of the ‘chosen one’, flipping it on its head and fast-forwarding 10 years into the future. When a chosen one, or chosen ones, have completed their destiny and saved the world, what happens next?

Chosen Ones illustrates the mental, physical and emotional strain that would be placed on young people if they were expected to save the world like they do in books and movies. Ten years after defeating the Dark One, Sloane and her four friends are still trying to adapt and move on from what happened. Not all of them have thrived since they defeated the Dark One.

“She wanted to comfort him, but she didn’t know how. She had never seem him so tired, so…disappointed. In the world, in himself, even in her. She sat next to him on the couch, her hands clasped over her knees.”

Structurally, the book switches between prose in Sloane’s POV, and document clippings — articles, essays, news reports, interviews, classified government files, and police investigations. Whilst it doesn’t necessarily feel like it adds much to the plot, the documents help give context to the setting and the ‘world’ that they’re in, and will give readers a greater understanding of the danger that Sloane faces.

Unique, interesting and well-paced fiction, Chosen Ones feels fresh. Stereotypes are challenged, and the novel plays with the concept of alternate universes. With transformative imagery and descriptive locations, the novel’s setting feel grand, in-depth and well-developed, something that allows the reader to sink into and devour with each passing page.

At times, Chosen Ones is dark and complex. Explored themes include drug use, mental health, torture and physical disability, among many others. Fans who grew up with Veronica’s young adult novels will feel this is a natural progression — Chosen Ones is diverse and inclusive, with a strong core cast of characters and engrossing magic woven throughout.

“The Drain had driven a crater deep into the ground, so deep that some of the workers looked child-size from where she stood. When Sloane first saw a Drain site, she had expected it to be a uniform substance, like the surface of the moon. But there were still remnants of what had been there: broken planks, crumbling bricks, chunks of asphalt, bits of old fabric.”

Set in Chicago, readers will appreciate that this is a standalone novel. Veronica draws out as much from the world and the storyline as she possibly can, and pulls all threads together for an explosive finale.

Stylistically, whilst the book follows the five Chosen Ones, the book focuses primarily on the character of Sloane. Written in third person, Sloane is sharp, bitter and at times unpredictable, desperately trying to understand where she now fits in the world and how to process her life up until this point. Over time, the reader comes to understand the other characters through Sloane and her experiences, allowing for a greater understanding of her motivations.

“Sloane reached for words and came up empty. He had a point — she had been kidnapped by the Dark One, too, but he hadn’t done to her what he had done to Albie, hadn’t attacked her body and left her with no feeling in her hands and no way to rejoin the fight.”

At times, the science behind the world and the explanations behind the magic felt a little too complex and hard to swallow. Additionally, there were a couple of twists that felt a little predictable and were foreshadowed too much for an adult readership — particularly around the character of Mox — but there are definitely enough surprises in the plot to intrigue readers and keep them enthralled in the story.

Whilst this is being marketed as Veronica Roth’s first book for adults, young adult readers will also enjoy Chosen Ones. Truthfully, it feels more YA than adult. The concept of superheroes and the ‘chosen ones’, the magical elements woven throughout the book, the emotional angst between the characters, and the budding relationship between two characters felt reminiscent of a YA novel.

Recommended for fans of fantasy, speculative fiction and young adult. Aged 14+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Chosen Ones
Veronica Roth
April 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

Recursion by Blake Crouch

What if someone could rewrite your entire life?
‘My son has been erased.’

Those are the last words the woman tells Barry Sutton, before she leaps from the Manhattan rooftop. Deeply unnerved, Barry begins to investigate her death, only to learn that this wasn’t an isolated case. All across the country, people are waking up to lives different than the ones they fell asleep to. Are they suffering from False Memory Syndrome, a mysterious, new disease that afflicts people with vivid memories of a life they never lived? Or is something far more sinister behind the fracturing of reality all around him?

Miles away, neuroscientist Helena Smith is developing a technology that allows us to preserve our most intense memories, and relive them. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

Barry’s search for the truth leads him on an impossible, astonishing journey, as he discovers that Helena’s work has yielded a terrifying gift – the ability not just to preserve memories, but to remake them . . . at the risk of destroying what it means to be human.

Recursion by Blake Crouch is a mind-bending, thrilling novel about memory readjustment, and a technological advancement that allows people to go back in time and rewrite their history and avoid terrible things happening — deaths, divorces, terrorist attacks. But, naturally, something with this much power has its consequences.

There are two main characters in the book. First, in 2018, there’s Barry, an NYPD detective whose marriage crumbled when his daughter was killed in a hit-and-run accident over a decade earlier.

Secondly, in 2007, Helena is a neuroscientist in Palo Alto who is studying memory. Her mother suffers from severe memory loss and Helena wants to invent and develop a chair that will help her. When a stranger appears in her office, he offers her the funding she requires to finish the chair that could help her mum.

“Barry has the tracking software activated on his phone. He has no idea how long he’s been unconscious, but assuming it’s still early Tuesday morning, his absence from work won’t be noticed until late afternoon. In theory, hours from now.”

Part of the intrigue of the book, is waiting to find out how Helena’s inventions in 2007 lead to the plagued False Memory Syndrome in Barry’s 2018. We first meet Barry when he fails to convince a woman not to jump off the top of the building in suicide — she’s a victim of False Memory Syndrome and a few weeks earlier, she woke up to discover all her past memories weren’t real and she was now living an alternate life. She was confused and angry, and lost. She felt so depressed, she committed suicide. Barry investigates this ‘syndrome’ and uncovers a dangerous secret behind the syndrome, and we start to understand how Barry and Helena’s lives will intersect.

This book took me completely by surprise — it hooked me from the first chapter, and kept me absolutely addicted until the last paragraphs. What a wild ride; what a magnificent read.

The technology and the premise drew me in immediately. Memory is the dominant theme in this book and it’s used so well, drawing on the human experience of hindsight and regret and asking readers to imagine a world where you could go back and change something terrible that happened in your life. Regret your marriage? You can erase it!

Recursion is apparently a sequel, although I sensed no evidence of that. I’ve never read Dark Matter, and I adored this book. I’ve been recommending it to just about everyone since I finished it last week.

“Over the last year, this apartment has felt more and more like a prison, but never more so than now. And it occurs to her as hot, angry tears run down her face that it was her own self-destructive ambition that carried her to this moment, and probably the one in 2018.”

Despite a less than impressive cover design, this book is the kind of story I’m interested in. It’s complex, but heartfelt. The characters are fleshed out and original, and the premise is incredibly fascinating, unique and a real page turner.

This book won’t be for everyone, I’ll admit that. It’s about time travel, memory alterations, and at times the back-and-forth between timelines and the complex mathematical nature of it all can get a little overwhelming. You have to have an interest in the fantastical — the imaginary — to love this book. But if that sounds like you, definitely pick this up. Well worth a read.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Recursion
Blake Crouch
June 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Thou Shalt Kill

A dark, gripping and witty thriller in which the only thing humanity has control over is death.

In a world where disease, war and crime have been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional scythes.

Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythes’ apprentices, and despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation, they must learn the art of killing and understand the necessity of what they do. Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice and as Citra and Rowan come up against a terrifyingly corrupt Scythedom, it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman is a speculative fiction novel set in a world where people don’t die of natural causes. They can live for decades, and they can even reset their bodies and turn themselves young again.

In order to curb the population growth, Scythes are employed to kill people. They act like assassins. There is a system to their decisions, but ultimately, a lot of the time the deaths are random. They could be women, men or children. They could be hundreds of years old, or toddlers. They could be teenagers with lots of promise, or someone evil who hasn’t lived a very moral life.

“That afternoon, just as the scythe had said, they went to the shipping company where the woman worked, and they watched — just as Rowan had watched Kohl’s gleaning.
‘I have chosen for you a life-terminating pill,’ Scythe Faraday told the speechless, tremulous woman. He reached into his robe and produced a small pill in a little glass vial.”

This novel is both original and engrossing; Neal has set this series up really well, drawing the reader into this crazy and chaotic world. The characters are all really different, but the danger is real. The book may be long, but it’s fast-paced and the stakes are high. Despite the fact that the final third of the book dragged on a little too much and it could’ve been edited down, I did really like this read.

The world building is the biggest strength of this series — technology is incredibly advanced and society is a lot more civilised. And yet, fear is so dominant. Despite the fact that people in this world don’t feel pain and they don’t suffer and war doesn’t exist, there is still something in the world that scares them — petrifies them. And that is death. Because it is something they can’t control.

“The scythe attack came less than a minute after she was given her slice, piping hot from the oven. ..Esme turned to see them. Four of them. They were clad in bright robes that glittered. They looked like no one Esme had ever seen. She had never met a scythe.”

Citra and Rowan are moral and compassionate, one of the reasons that they were chosen as apprentices. I liked their dynamic, and their budding relationship. They were in competition with each other, always challenging one another to be the best.

“There were men and there were women. The subjects represented different ages, ethnic mixes, and body types, from muscular to obsess to gaunt. He yelled and screamed and grunted with every thrust, slice and twist. He had trained well. The blades sunk in with perfect precision.”

I’d recommend this to fantasy or science fiction lovers. The storyline is still grounded in reality, but with alternate, fantastical elements. Young adult readers may find this to be a little long, but it’s still a great launch for the series and I think readers will follow Neil onto book number two.

I don’t think this book is necessarily just for young adult readers, but for people who love adult fiction as well. If you love crime or thrillers, you’ll love how Neal has woven fact with fiction, the real vs. the unreal. The main characters may be young but they’re mature and they’re self-aware, and they drive the book. The concept of the series is intriguing enough to pull in even the most reluctant of readers.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Scythe
Neal Shusterman
February 2018
Walker Books Australia