Clever ideas, but odd execution?
I thought the idea for this book was great, but a lot of it was just weird. I wondered for a while if I had inadvertently got hold of a horror novel, as this could certainly surprise the reader who, like me, was not expecting some rather gruesome and scary scenes. There were huge hops in time between parts of the book, which did come as a surprise, and the ending was rather sudden - I had wondered why the story hadn't been tidied up a long time before, and as I neared the end I was coming to the conclusion that there must be a dreaded cliffhanger, then suddenly it ended. I would find it hard to recommend this book, unless you like really odd stories. Still, clever ideas.

I wasn't a huge fan of this book I'm sorry to say. I won't go into all the things I didn't like and I won't be posting a review on any other platform on this occasion. Maybe I just didn't 'get it'. Sorry.

Several years ago, The Happening tried to scare us by making us wonder what would happen if plants started to take over and kill people. Now, The Abscission Zone does the same thing. Neither one manages to pull off the concept successfully. Like The Happening, this novel doesn't delve deeply enough into answering how the plants have suddenly become so powerful, so it just feels like a random mystery that no one can solve. This book also tries to cram way too many storylines into a cohesive whole, which leaves a pile of unanswered questions and introduces new ideas toward the end, expecting us to accept them as if they'd been there the whole time. There were several places throughout where the author could have wrapped up and ended the book, or at least wrapped up with the intention of a sequel later, but instead he just kept piling on more until the book finally just ended.

Disjointed at times and only gets interesting at the end. Hopefully the next book will be better.

I really wanted to like this book, but as I was doing more research, I began to feel an ominous music begin to play behind my back. The Abscission Zone has so much promise, and to a few degrees it fulfills its claims, but in many, and too many, it falls flat.

When I first saw this book, I thought the plot sounded fantastic. However, it failed to live up to many of the promises I predicted from the somewhat vague summary. I do want to begin with what I did enjoy: the scientific aspects. I am not a botanist, so I have no clue how accurate it is. But it did present a little light at the end of the tunnel to learn about a few of the more unusual plant varieties. But now on to what didn’t work for me: the plot and characters.

From the summary, there lacks a real purpose or outline of the plot. In the book it was no different. I felt like events just happened to the characters. On to the characters. While I had some empathy for them, I couldn’t connect to them at all. We rarely get glimpses into their thoughts, their memories, and they have very few ‘wants’. Additionally, characters would ‘die’ or just pop up again and I could never get a sense of the side characters. Even though there were many that held promise!

I suppose that sums up my entire feelings about it: it had promise it failed to fulfill. I wanted to be surprised and have it exceed my expectations, but unfortunately it never did. However, if you want to read about these killer plants, then it is a quick read that does not take too much away from your day, but do not expect to fall in love with the characters.

This is one of the rare cases where I wished I had looked up the reviews or even just the ratings for a book before I requested it. The blurb sounded so interesting that I just couldn't resist.

Instead, I got one of the worst character building I have read, if not the worst, and a story that didn't make much sense.
And the writing... Boy. At times it felt like a pre-teen wrote this book. It was just so underdeveloped.

I cannot begin to tell you how much these characters annoyed me. Every single one of them wanted to do bad things to everyone they came across. And they are such bad-asses in their own minds.

Examples:

Arnie (the boss): <em>I wish you knew my pet name for you: "Dock the Dork."</em>
Dock: <i>I don't want to brag but I do know more about plants than almost anyone alive does.</i>
Texie: <i>After I kick that thing's ass, I am going after you, you stupid (...) asshole. No one pushes me around like this.</i>

And there is so, so much more.

These scientists talk and act nothing like scientists. The first couple of lines of the book were a hint: <i>Texie Raynott raised her eyebrows as she stared into the microscope. Green stuff in cancer cells? That can't be right.</i> Stuff... That didn't sound very scientific.

Throughout the first part of the story, random scientific-ish stuff is thrown out there but it feels more like it is meant to show the author did some research about plants because the characters constantly act like hormonal teenagers, kicking everyone's ass, despite Dock's constant 'who knew I was going to die like this' lines every time he comes across a particularly dire situation.

Some descriptions were quite entertaining and even pretty, but that is about it.

Then in the second part everything changes because for some reason people are able to travel to Mars and actually build a colony there with just 12 people. Things don't improve much in terms of characters, they still act like teenagers, constantly throwing tantrums, pissed off at something or someone all the time, and think the world of themselves. Back on Earth, freaky assassin plants are replaced by freaky mutations and there are a few changes to human society, but there is no depth to anything, bizarre stuff is just thrown out there, for no apparent purpose other than surprise and enthrall the reader.
It didn't work.

The book ends with many questions unanswered, so I imagine there will be sequel(s).
I am afraid I am not in the least curious to know what happens to Earth, Mars and least of all these characters.

<i>Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.</i>

The Abscission Zone was too much for me. It really stretched the believable (I know, it is science fiction/horror).
Truth be told, I had a really hard time pushing through this one.
Would not recommend..

The Abscission Zone has an awesome premise but fails on all other points.
The main three being:
1.) The characters are caricatures.
2.) Everything is laid out as though the readers are idiots. All telling/informing, no showing/evoking.
3.) The dialogue is cringe-worthy.
This book needs a serious amount of work to make it into something readable. Right now, the writing is more appropriate for an early chapter book rather than the adult novel its meant to be. This feels like the work of a beginning writer, and whilst I would applaud him for having the courage to put his work out there - he needs to work on refining his craft for a while yet.

Note: I did not finish this book. I could not.

Poorly written. I cannot recommend at all. This needs several kinds of editors.

I .... am in amazement with how BAD this book was.

No offense meant, but everything in this book is so underdeveloped and frankly dumbed down. The writing is equivalent to what you would find in a childrens picture book: Dock swam down, and pulled on the board. Dock couldnt breath, and had to swim back up.

Not even going on the mention how unlikable all the characters are, and, again, underdeveloped. Texie and Dock were so BLEGH and the fact that Dock was acting like a freaking stalker in the beginning when Texie got hurt: Damn! I should have told Texie I loved her!

Also, the way the book read was...odd. So much happened, but then we were only 14% through. When does Texie go to Mars, as the summary infers?

Idk, I'm done. I thought I could get through this because of how entertainingly bad it was, but I have better things to do and read than this ... thing.

I will admit I had some difficulty getting into this book. It seemed rushed and too wordy. I also had great difficulty in connecting with any of the characters, perhaps since they are always taking and there is no "fleshing out" of their personalities. The premise is a good one, with Mother Nature in revolution against humanity, using plants to basically wipe us out, but the writing fell short developmentally. Only my opinion.

This book was probably 3.5 stars for me. I really liked some aspects of the novel, but there were some caveats for me as well.

Texie Raynott and Dock Hatman are plant biologists, using their knowledge to try and extract miracle cures for cancer and other diseases from plants. A seeming accident with a plant Texie is studying leads the pair to the discovery that plants are fighting back. Their intelligence has apparently evolved and they are using their defense mechanisms as weapons against people, and the problem is escalating. Those few who know what's happening are baffled. The plants are morphed by the author into truly menacing creatures, and it is spooky and creepy to think of our world attacking us in such a way. In response, a nefarious breed of scientists, perhaps in league with a powerful computer Artificial Intelligence, attempt to find a way to combat the plant menace through barbaric trials and experiments. Some world factions race to build ships to take small groups of people to Mars in a worst case scenario.

Texie and Doc find themselves trapped with nowhere to turn, on the run from one group or another, as they try to both save themselves and also crack to code as to why the plants have attacked and who or what is behind it. Will the colony on Mars find refuge from the killer plants? Will those left on earth find answers in time? There are prophecies and ancient depictions of a Green Man who will take back the world, but are they just myths?

I enjoyed much of The Abscission Zone. I found it to be like a post-apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland meets The Martian, if you can imagine that. There was a lot going on, which was great. There were some interesting and quirky characters like the Medicine Man and I liked Dock quite a bit, but I found I didn't care very much about the other characters and didn't get to know them much, before they were thrown into the fire. The author does manage to make dozens of these previously mundane plants into legitimately scary creatures, and it is freaky to think about what would happen if our world turned against us in such a way. There were a lot of things in the book that weren't explained, and aspects that stretched believability beyond the breaking point for me. Eventually I just gave up on some things with the plants and the tech advancements and the computer AI and the actions of the characters that didn't make sense at all for me. I did like the ideas for the story, with nature fighting back

against mankind's cavalier and arrogant exploitation of anything and everything, and I'm sure the sequel will flesh things out some more, and I'd be willing to give it a read when it comes out. If those things tighten up a bit, I think would be a 4-star series.