This book is going to appeal to the fans of the Divergent series once they have entered into adulthood. It still carries all the fun, excitement, drama, and romance of the YA Dystopian books we love(d), while also providing more complexity, depth, and emotion.

Resistance is set in a world where people are categorized into four Elementals, categories that they are conditioned to at birth - Air, Earth, Fire, and Water - each providing necessary and rigidly designated functions to the society. People must commit to their element and follow the Orthodoxy, any behavior against this is Unorthodox and punishable. Heterodoxy, not just a behavior flaw, but one of character, cannot be fixed by any means other than execution of that individual.
Anaiya, a Fire Elemental, is a peacekeeper tasked with maintaining the Orthodoxy by all means necessary. When there is a rise of Heterodoxy, Anaiya must go undercover as an Air Elemental to find the perpetrators and to destroy them.

The first thing that I really enjoyed about this novel was that it offered a different perspective of a dystopian world. So many times dystopian novels show the characters being on the "right" side and fighting the evil oppressors. This time, the main character is on the side that is being protested. Not only that, but she supports the "bad" side when she starts her mission. This is a new and refreshing way to tell the extremely popular dystopian story. In so many novels of this genre, I find this perspective to be challenging.

Another thing that I loved about this novel is that Anaiya has a lot of depth as the main character. She constantly struggles to decide what is right and wrong as she learns about a new perspective on her world. Furthermore, she isn't constantly doing what she knows is right, she is self-serving and self-interested, a character trait that provides conflict and drama throughout the novel. Her relationships drive the plot and her every action. I may have yelled at the book a few times because she was behaving in a way that upset me...

I will say that the reason I only gave this four stars is that it was so slow for me in the first 25% of the books, I felt like so much time was spent on describing free running, and I just didn't care. Once I got past this, however, I truly enjoyed the read.

I think this book was also a little predictable, but I think anyone picking up a dystopian would know that at this point... there isn't too much new to add. Regardless, this was a fun new take on the genre.

Overall, I highly recommend giving this a shot!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publishers for providing me with a free copy of this to review. All of my opinions are completely mine.

I love a good dystopian story, and Resistance is one of those books I like more the longer I think about it. While the plot is largely by the numbers, it's refreshing to get the perspective of the enforcer convinced they're preserving a utopian status quo (and they are, mostly), and I loved that it was set in Paris (minor gripe: the first half of the novel feels like Any Dystopian City as the Fire Element don't appear to speak French, so many place names are translated into English).

While the Orthodoxy feels a little simplistic, I liked the focus on social programming rather than good and evil. There are no characters here who are villains by choice, just people who are following a script they literally can't question. It's a timely message and allows for some clever storytelling - Anaiya's perceptions, feelings and even language (watch the use of adjectives) shift with her conditioning.

I hope for further world-building in the sequel - a lot is sketched in quickly in this first book, and while it's largely consistent, a few gaps / implications left me asking all the questions about the intricacies of this utopian state. I'd also hope to see more depth of characterisation as Anaiya becomes more empathetic and begins to better understand those around her. Still, I found plenty to like and to think about (although I remain uncertain how much of that is in the text vs my rapidly-evolving head canon. Orthodoxy: I'm not very good at it).

Favourite moment: Anaiya trying to understand the actions of the Peacekeepers as violence.

3.5 stars

I had a hard time getting into this book. I thought it was an interesting world, but I didn't particularly like Anaiya. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

I didn't like the writing style. It didn't flow together that well. I was also so utterly confused and I just stop reading when I'm confused for more than one chapter.

DNF at 8%

This has a cool cover design but outside that, it was all that held my interest as i had to force myself to read it.