Review: THE 100 by Kass Morgan

The 100 by Kass Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Hunger Games meets Lost in this spectacular new series. Now a major TV series on E4.

No one has set foot on Earth in centuries - until now.

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents - considered expendable by society - are being sent on a dangerous mission: to re-colonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.

CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves - but will she ever forgive him Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.

Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope. 

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I decided to read this book after watching the first season of the TV series. Immediately I was hooked—mainly because I realised the book was so different. We’ve got new characters in this book (including main character Glass) and new storylines.

The narrative is split between four POV characters: Wells, Clarke, Bellamy, and Glass. And I guess because I read this after having watched the series, I can’t help but compare it. I soon realised that characters who’d died in the TV series early on weren’t going to die in the book—instead, we get to know a lot more about them. And these four characters are really well written. They’ve got flaws. Though I have to admit that with the exception of Bellamy, their narrative voices sounded a little similar.

While these four characters are extremely well written, I found many of the secondary and minor characters a little flat. I’d have liked to see Luke and Thalia especially fleshed out a bit more. Octavia’s characterisation seemed a little stronger, but again, not as strong as the POV characters.

So I loved the worldbuilding in this book. Perhaps more than in the tv series, though it is of course similar. But the book feels a lot more realistic. The science is more explained--and it seems like their technology has taken a more natural progression than in the books. An example of this is the cornea slips that many of the main characters have on the spaceship, which don't appear in the TV series.

Talking of the spaceship--it's a lot more structured in the book. And there are clearer divisions. So you've got different sections of the ship, such as Phoenix, and each has a different class-status and we see the conflict between these classes and how some are seen as dispensable. I thought this provided a great way to look at modern societies and how elitist some people can be.

The narrative is told through a mixture of present day action for all four POV characters and their flashbacks. And the flashbacks are what really held the book together. They made everything so much more cohesive; they also really helped me understand the lead-up to the book’s set up. Reading the final flashbacks at the end was an “aha” moment as it made me truly understand what had been happening at the beginning. Not to say that there hadn’t been enough info provided at the start—there had, but the ending just gave it all that little bit of extra meaning.

So this book is shorter than I was expecting it to be. And although Glass had a clear arc in her narrative, there wasn’t so much a complete arc for Clarke, Wells, or Bellamy. Instead, the final few pages introduces another element—the other people who have survivor on earth. This clearly sets up for the next book, and because of this, for me, the book’s written more like a TV series than a novel series. I thought that was especially interesting.

And I do just want to say that although Clarke has two love interests--Wells and Bellamy--it's not really a typical love triangle, which I really appreciated. We see her with both of them at different times in the book, but the romance is definitely not a huge drive-force of the book, which I really appreciated.

The writing is so addictive though, and I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended if you want a YA dystopian/post-apocalyptic/science fiction read.

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Review: BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman

Bird Box by Josh Malerman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Malorie raises the children the only way she can: indoors, with the doors locked, the curtains closed, and mattresses nailed over the windows.

The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall, but soon she will have to wake them and blindfold them.

Today they will risk everything. Today they will leave the house.

Josh Malerman’s New York Times bestselling Bird Box is a terrifying psychological thriller that will haunt you long after reading.

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Bird Box is an intense, gripping, and fast-paced apocalyptic thriller by Josh Malerman. I only became aware of the existence of this book after watching the film starring Sandra Bullock. I absolutely loved that film—it had heart, action, and horror packed in—and so when I saw the ebook was on sale for £0.99 o just had to give it a try.

Because I’d loved the film so much, I was a little sceptical—but the book is even better. Malorie, our main character, is strongly written and the narrative really delves deeper into her psyche, allowing us to see new layers that the film didn’t have. We see her weaknesses and her faults as she battles to keep her two young children alive in a world where opening your eyes can get you killed.

The other main characters are well written and believable, and we see how stress brings out the worst and best things about humanity.

Remarkably, the plot of the film is strikingly close to the book. Of course, there are some differences (such as some events happen much closer together in the film and it also has a main character doe much later than in the book), but all the other essential elements are there—the book just develops many more, such as the survivors’ use of animals in keeping them safe from the creatures that will drive them mad if they see them.

I was delighted to see the book kept the back-and-forth non-linear narrative that the film had. I just loved that structure.

There is a lot of darkness in this book and a few scenes that made me feel queasy. Warning for suicide, murder, and graphic violent content.

This is a must-read for apocalypse and dystopian fans.

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