Summary
Goodreads: As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.
The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.
Thoughts
I really didn't like the characters. They seemed like cardboard cutouts and they are insanely inconsistent. At first Alenna is all ohhh noooo I simply won't fall in love with love-interest-whose-name-I've-forgotten. Especially because special snowflake bff keeps calling me a slut and I don't want to prove her right! Because nothing says true friendship like slut shaming. But hot guy is just soooo hot I can't stop myself! But there's just so much DRAMA because we're star crossed lovers! We just can't be together because my bff is in love with you! That's definitely more important than the fact there are crazy cannibals and body snatching machines on a deserted island trying to kill me!
I may have gotten really annoyed by the characters, which is a shame as I probably would have liked the book otherwise. The premise is interesting, it's loaded with action and crazy situations, and while the mysteries for the most part weren't too difficult to figure out, there is one in particular I TOTALLY didn't see coming!
Overall
I don't regret reading it and if I see the next book lying around, I'd read it. But if this hadn't been free on pulseit I probably wouldn't have read it. For one, I like to have some emotional response when a character dies.
Yes, this is pretty much exactly how I felt about it. I found the the plot drove the characters so their actions were consistently inconsistent.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly it! I was like...hold on didn't you hate each other? Do you like each other? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! But I loved everything else except the characters! Which is so frustrating, because really the characters are everything to me :-/
ReplyDeleteThe Wheel? Really THE WHEEL? I- really?! Is there any reason for naming the island Wheel? Does it look like one or? :S Why would you call an island the Wheel? I give up on ever liking that. I'll cheer on whoever dies. Ooooo look, snowflake...no, it's gone. PLEASE LET IT BE SNOWFLAKE.
ReplyDeleteBahahaha I had forgotten it was called that! ...clearly not much stuck with me about this! And her best friend...UGH SHE MAKES ME SO MAD! Easily my least favourite character.
ReplyDeleteIt's the WORST when you don't connect with the characters. I had a similar reading experience with a different book awhile back. One of the characters died and I actually thought, "Finally!" which is horrible... but so was the character.
ReplyDeleteYeah if I don't like the characters...it's a lost cause haha. What book was it?
ReplyDelete