I know that Drake has since revised this book and changed certain things about the controversies that surrounded its release, but I am still disappointed in the publishing of this novel and the fact that changes were required in the first place. The book was insensitive. Indigenous populations found this very offensive and I'm not sure why nobody caught this waaay before this book was published. I'm not going to take the time or energy to recap the issues that plague this book from the very first chapter.

I'm in the business of giving honest opinions about books. Regardless of whether or not I liked them, I will give my honest opinion about titles that I'm selected to read. This was a disappointment and not in good taste. I have read the revisions and didn't appreciate those, either.

This was a no from me.

I apologize but this title did not work for me. I apologize but this title did not work for me. I apologize but this title did not work for me.

This book has been problematic from the beginning, and while I appreciate the re-write I just don't want a scandal coming up in my library. As such, I didn't even find it worth finishing once I realized I wasn't enjoying it anyway. This book should have gotten a new cover and a new title. THEN maybe it could have escaped the scandal and been swept under the rug. I'm all about apologizing and learning from one's mistakes and then moving on, but letting it keep its title and cover is not allowing us to move on. It's still attached to the racism scandal, with horrible reviews showing up for it on Goodreads and retail sites. If parents or readers look this book up and see all of those reviews, there will be mad people and hurt feelings. I don't want to explain my purchasing decision to a bunch of mad people, so I just won't be getting this one.

I ended up purchasing this book for my library after reading about the critiques of the initial ARCs and the extensive rewrite process Drake went through prior to final publication. I'm always looking for examples of authors taking the time to make things right, so this book hit that sweet spot and it gives me a little something extra to share with kids when I booktalk this title. Looking forward to the next installment.

I know the author originally received some hateful and hurtful feedback of this book and decided to change certain things. I was never part of the original ARC receivers so I can't say how the changes affected or didn't affect her work. I will say that I did like the book and the worldbuilding kind of reminded me of The Black Witch by: Laurie Forest. ill I recommend it depends on what the person I am helping is looking for. And if they would like to read a book that focuses on bigotry in a fantasy setting.

I enjoyed this story despite all the challenges people outlined they had with it the first time around. In the end I think a fantasy work of fiction will always have elements that could potentially offend considering these are made up rules and cultures but who am I to decide.

Ultimately I thought the story itself was interesting. The Continent is a land very different from the Spire, where the main character, Vaela, grew up. Drake did a great job in sharing just how dangerous this world could be for someone who has no experience living there. When something happens that causes Vaela to lose everything and ultimately leaves her stranded in an unknown world, she has to figure out how to survive as well as learn about a whole new world.

This book has plenty of action as well as a bit of politics. I thought the world building and the character development was well done.

The cover is gorgeous. Everything inside the cover is basically garbage.

In scanning some of the other reviews, I think this was set for release a couple years ago but was so controversially racist that it went into rewrites and is now being released this year. If that is the case (I don't know for sure), than the rewrites were kind of successful? It wasn't overly racist anyway. I mean, there were different groups of people and there were races and the (seemingly) blended harmony of the spire versus the 2 groups on the continent was relevant to the plot. Haha, I should say "plot". But they weren't like.... obviously being racist against any one particular group I didn't THINK.

On the other hand, they were being super annoyingly awfully cloying and lame. The main character, Vaela, is from the Spire which is the wondrous advanced tech massive ... continent? (not the continent of the title) with 4 directional groups made up of blended harmony races (but still some majority of the original 4 directions so that, huh, maybe it was still kind of racist, anyway, so that each direction was associated with one group of another. West was basically what sounded like California surfers. And then I don't really remember the rest. There were some redheads? So she's from this massive land mass which is NOT the Continent but has the majority of human beings and is really really large. And then the "Continent" of the title is a fractionally smaller land mass with only a couple of thousand people on it. Like less than 15,000. And it's like, what, this makes no sense spatially but whatever

Another tired, dull YA dystopian novel without an original thought in its pages, and with a gratuitous and upsetting pet death thrown in to seal the deal.

Hard pass.

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: Man, this book I went out and grabbed a copy it took me a few days to find one but I did get one! And it was so worth it. I went into this book knowing that the author had the chance to go back and change things. And I have to say she did a wonderful job. This book was so full of cultural appreciation that you could see the love she poured into the pages. I do not remember much of the ARC I read for the first time this was supposed to release so this will be a full review of this edition only. I will say one thing though after reading my review below. I did notice that she changed the name of the opposing force.

Check out author's other books? YES
Recommend this book? YES YES YES YES YES

Notes and Opinions: Ok, so this one starts out with our MC, Vaela celebrating her birthday and getting a ticket to the Continent. I loved the descriptions that the author gave us in this one it made the world come alive and sucked you into the story. After we get to the Continent we get even more wonderful depictions of that world. I felt like I was there in the middle of it seeing everything that our MC does and I can tell you it was wonderful. The Xoe were terrifying and the Aven'ei were wonderful in their own right. I did find Vaela ignorant to start with she has lived a sheltered life in the Spire and does not really know the world. She is blind to the real world around her. However, this works out well for this book. We are like Vaela in the respect that we do not know the world that she is thrown into. We do not know the Xoe or the Aven'ei. And through her eyes, we learn all we can about this new world of the Continent. I also want to note that although Vaela has lead a sheltered life for the past 16 years she doesn't shy away from hard work when presented to her. She does what she has to survive no matter what it is. She was a very strong female character in her own right and one that I fell in love with during my time of reading this book. During the time of this book, she learns to fight and do things that she even states about what her parents would think about it. I really loved her character and the fact that she went with the flow with what she was presented. She reminds me of my daughter in this way. (My oldest was diagnosed with diabetes back in Jan. and has taken it much better than I would ever have.)

Venturing into this book was a slow simmer to a full out adventure. I loved all the characters and the steps it took each one to get where they needed to be. I loved how the climax took us to new heights and how each character both big and small were not immune to death. So many authors protect their main characters and side characters that is almost like they are immortal and Drake didn't do that. In such, it made this world and situation more real.

This is one of the best fantasy's that I have read this year and I can not wait for The Divide next year. The only issue I had with this is below because of spoilers. So highlight it to see it. (the below is in white on the site)

*spoiler*When Vaela goes back to the Spire and is told no that they will not help the Aven'ei. Vaela spends 2 weeks at home. She has this massive fortune to call her own. I just don't understand why she wouldn't have spent some of that money getting things for the Aven'ei. Like fabric, containers for food, or something else they might need. Off the top of my head, I would think medicine or books that could be useful and the like. I can't help but think of season three of Outlander when Claire goes back to find Jamie. She takes medicine with her. I just think that with all of the advancements in the Spire and Vaela having a good head on her shoulders she would have taken more care to not go back empty handed.*spoiler*


Go Into This One Knowing: Adventure, Romance, All the Feels, War

I found little to nothing has been changed. Unfortunately, this novel just didn't work out for me.

I enjoyed this novel. I found the topic of war and peace an interesting one, and thought provoking. I think it could be very applicable for teens. I enjoyed the female protagonist and the fact that she wasn't immediately good at everything or given the best work position.

There were a few things that didn't add up for me, but they were small details. For example if these are warring tribes that don't sound like well developed nations how do they have furniture like couches but then don't have a sewer system.

Vaela lives in the Spire. A land who has outlawed war and violence and has striven to provide it's citizens with not only basic needs but comfortable lifestyles. For her birthday, Vaela receives a tour to the continent. The continent is a war ravaged land, where death and destruction is ingrained deep into their society. When their touring aircraft develops engine trouble, Vaela escapes by means of the only escape pod. She watches while the aircraft crashes, killing her entire family. Alone and hungry, Vaela ventures from the escape pod, only to be captured by the natives.

This was a very interesting premise, with a well developed world. The characters were fascinating. I would love to read more based in this world. I see this book branching out and evolving into a multiple series, multiple timelines adventure. Overall, highly recommended.

Posted to Goodreads: For a more in-depth review watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGWdNiqZ_Co&feature=youtu.be

Vaela Sun has always wanted to leave her safe home in the Spire to visit the Continent and on her sixteenth birthday Vaela is given a trip to the mysterious location. But when tragedy falls she finds herself alone in a dangerous unknown land.

I had so many issues with this book. Vaela isn't developed enough to feel like a real character or for the reader to actually care about her. The story's pacing feels off with the beginning feeling very slow and the ending feeling very rushed. The timeline feel disjoined with events not really being cohesive. Plus, the ending really just doesn't work with the rest of the story.

The controversy surrounding this book is the only reason I found out about it (which says a lot about how pointing out "problematic books" can backfire and make a book more popular, but ANYWAY). When I had a chance to read the updated arc, I said why not?

Because, no.

Stalk Twitter for a few minutes, and you'll find out that a lot of people called this book out for being racist and generally not well written. I won't get into the racial aspects of this novel becuase I stopped reading even before they got to the continent, so I can't say much on how the novel portrays the natives in the book. From the bit I read...it could have been handled a lot better.

And that's the main problem with the book (or at least the 10% I read) the word choice! the sentence structure! the dialogue! It's just so bad. No one talks like this! No one thinks like this! It's awkward and clunky and so expositional, it's hard to get through even one chapter. I kept wincing every time I came accross a particularly cringy sentence or phrase. It happened a lot.

From the two chapters I read, there was nothing remotely interesting about the story that made me want to keep reading. It wasn't engaging or interesting, and I just wanted it to be over. I was skimming from the first pages.

So overall, this book is not great.

What gets me though, is that this book would have died off in obscurity, no one the wiser, if it hadn't been called out on Twitter and brought to people's attention. Like, literally, this novel would have sat on shelves at bookstores forever, because it's not the kind of book a lot of people would pick up. This is a book no one would have cared about. It should remain a book no one cares about.

I tried to enjoy this book - but the overwhelming "white girl savior" tone of the book was hard to get through. As a teacher, I struggle to make sure students don't believe narratives like this are the only reality of native civilizations. These beliefs, unfortunately, are engrained in our society, so it saddens me that an interesting premise gets lost in these old-school mentalities.

Received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

This book grabbed my attention because of all the negative reviews and controversy surrounding it. I'm not sure what exactly was changed from the original version to the one that I just read, so my review is strictly based on this newer version.

It was an okay book. After reading the first three chapters, the foreshadowing was so heavy that I predicted the plotline of the book almost to the tee. I felt the storyline just fell flat and was more focused on the larger plot developments and ending, rather than smaller details that would make the story flow as well as crucial character developments. How many times did we need to hear about Vaela's failure at baking bread? How about the struggle for true adaptation between civilizations? Differences in culture in detail? There was so much more that this book could have delivered to make it a powerful and memorable story.
Another plot piece that was left undeveloped was how an entire scene discussed how general society was excluded from scientific advances like cameras and phones, since they weren't controlled by the government, and then just dropped. Well why?