“Your eyes look like the sun.”
•
It’s been a while since I read a good dystopian and then this one arrived and I fell completely in love. The sun has become a gigantic fire ball that nobody can endure so humanity has decided to refuge underground. But even if life as we have always known it is over, injustices are not. Indeed compound Eleven is divided into 5 floors, the ones on the highest floors rule, the others obey and need to suffer cruelties every day. Eve is a fighter, her dad thought her long ago that this is the only way a second floor girl can survive and when she has the chance to fight a Preme (one of the 5th floor) she wants to enjoy the moment. Except that he is so much stronger and he wins, but he also turns out to be a gentleman fascinated by her fierceness and her uniqueness. Eve and Wren start having a relationship that neither of them expected but that changes their whole lives and I absolutely adored seeing them together. Wren is a cinnamon roll, always ready to protect her, and she is completely taken off guard by this. She has always been thought that to be strong you don’t need to rely on anyone and she fights so much this new feelings for him, but in the end she understands that being together and loving him makes her stronger, not weaker. Nonetheless Eve has a dream: escape Eleven and go outside, even if it will kill her it will be worth it because she will die free. After all, her life in that hole sucks and only one person can’t change her entire perspective, can’t he?!

A unique dystopian romance about what life within a caste system would look like in an underground living facility. A thought-provoking and interesting take on fighting for freedom and a stunning portrayal of bravery and young love.

Eve has lived in Compound Eleven her entire life. The sun forced humans underground and people are grouped according to their worth. Eve, a fighter and Lower Mean, wants nothing more than to breakout of their facility and feel the sun on her face. But in her efforts to plan an escape, she meets Wren, a kind Preme who opens her eyes to new possibilities. Can Eve find freedom or will she choose to stay for her friends and family?

Packed full of action, Eve and Wren take us on a journey through their loss, defiance, and fight to find freedom outside the confined walls of Compound Eleven. A vivid and dark picture of what it’s like to be controlled by government and the beauty of love through all circumstances. A surprisingly additive read! I can’t wait to see where this one goes!

This book was amazing! It kept me glued to the pages. The storyline was interesting, and I loved the characters!

This is a dystopian YA novel set generations after the earth has become too hot for humans to live on the surface. The wealthy leaders of Earth built enormous bunkers under the ground and brought laborers with them so that there would be people to run the underground cities and do all the work. Eve lives in Compound Eleven. She’s a lowly 2nd-floor inhabitant, however, it’s better than the 1st floor. Living on the 5th floor are the elite and the privileged. As she looks for a way to escape the compound, she accidentally befriends a 5th-floor boy. She finds that maybe not everyone on the 5th floor is bad…or are they?

This is just what I want in a dystopian novel. There were secrets about the higher-ups and the lower classes are downtrodden. I loved the danger of the outside world. It created this locked-in feeling throughout the story.

This was also just the right amount of YA. The romance is soft with kisses, but nothing further really. Eve’s relationship is an enemies to lovers trope, which is one of my all-time favorites. I loved the persistence of him and the stubbornness of her.

Overall, this was an absolutely fabulous read! I enjoyed everything about it, and I am impatiently awaiting the next book!!!

Content Warning:
There is an attempted rape scene, which is somewhat graphic and could be a trigger for some. There is senseless murder, abuse, and references to child murder.

To Read or Not To Read:
I would recommend Escaping Eleven to readers that enjoy a YA series in a dystopian setting with a strong female lead.

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Well that was a nice surprise. It took me a bit to get into it, but towards the end, I felt like I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Truthfully, this was more of a 3-star book for me for most of it, but the end really kicked it up a notch and I thought it stuck the landing so I think it deserves the extra nudge. Probably more like a 3.5 rounded up.

If you're missing the Divergent and Hunger Games vibes in YA, you may like this one. The Earth is deemed uninhabitable so the people are forced to live underground. In this underground, there are four tiers: Premes (rich, privileged, in charge), Upper Means, Lower Means, and Denominators. I've always been into different caste systems or factions so this is a trope for me. The romantic story is that a Preme and a Lower Mean fall in love, but the bigger plot that drives the book is how Eve wants to escape the compound, even if it means finding her immediate death aboveground.

I wasn't so into all the bloody fighting parts, but I did like learning about the different roles each tier has in the compound and how it extends to professions and relationships. I also liked the added details of a one-child policy and the generational cleanse. It's a brutal system that only supports the Premes so it was easy to see how Eve would be willing to risk her life to get out of there.

I'm not gonna lie - the relationship was a bit insta-lovey, but it did grow on me after a while. I think that's why this book was more in the 3-star realm for me - I like to be swept off my feet in dystopias. Four and Peeta delivered that for me, but this relationship was a bit too quick from the get go so Wren didn't give me the swoons.

Overall, interesting enough to make me want to continue and it gave me the dystopia vibes I've been missing.

Thank you to Entangled Teen for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Whoa! Action-packed adventure about Eva’s fight for freedom.

This is a dystopian about the earth becoming to hot to survive on the surface and people are forced to live in under ground compounds to survive.

Eva’s character is so complex and fascinating. She is very relatable and easy to cheer for, she is so well layered. The world building is so well written, you feel like you’re there. I can’t wait to see what is in store for Eva in the next book!

What a read. Loved the book from beginning to end. Though sometimes it felt long, but I feel like it was necessary to understand Eve’s hardship and struggles. The other characters didn’t seems as important, but are there to support and encourage Eve. I liked Eve’s character, she is a strong young lady who has been through it all and it shows, the struggle is real, alive and still going on her floor. It is a long book, but I enjoyed it and look forward to seeing what else happens in this dystopian world, with its corrupt government. Thank you to NetGalley for ARC.

Escaping Eleven is the first installment in author Jerri Chisholm's Eleven trilogy. Four generations ago, Earth was rendered uninhabitable, the sun too hot, the land too barren. Those who survived were forced underground, where civilization divided into compounds. In Compound Eleven, only the cruel survive. Fighting is entertainment, violence is a way of life, and hierarchy is everything. For the Primes who inhabit the fifth floor, life is comfortable. For the Lower and High Means and the Denominators who live on the floors below, it is anything but.

16-year-old Eve Hamilton is a hobby fighter who was born on the second floor. After 9 years, Eve is still holding a huge grudge against the upper level Preme’s who shoved her younger brother out of the compound and into the supposed desolate world due to a violation of the compound’s population controls. Think forced abortion and forced sterilization. As the story opens, Eve is in a bad place emotionally. She’s been trained to fight by her father and that’s all she knows.

Eve knows that in 6 weeks, she must finally choose a career which she will likely work until the day she days, but she doesn’t bother going on any career day visits. One of those career’s could be a fighter on the Blue Circuit since she’s rather good at it. In the meantime, she picks up fights against any comers, including 18-year-old Wren who beats her to a bloody pulp. Sorry, but that’s the fact! Wren is an upstairs Preme who has everything that Eve doesn’t. But Wren is as unhappy in Compound Eleven as Eve.

Despite his privileged status, he wants something else; Eve. Eve has an agenda. She wants to be released above ground, to feel fresh air against her skin, to taste true freedom, even if the price is certain death. But the government has a stranglehold over who is even allowed to view the outside world. She desperately tries to access a place called Oracle which she believes will lead her to the outside. I am just going to say this; the most interesting parts of this story was watching from Eve’s eyes take in the wonder that she sees when she finally breaks the combination to get into the Oracle.

This also gives her hope that maybe her brother could still be alive, if there are any survivors outside the Compound. She also knows that there are other Compounds within close distance to Eleven. Wren is determined to make Eve stay—because despite the fact that romances between upper and lower floors are all but nonexistent and frowned upon. Wren and Else are proving the first of their kind in more ways than one. The book spends a whole lot of time between Eve and Wren’s romance and her struggles.

Eve is lucky in that she has supportive friends like Maggie, Emerald and Hunter. She also made some Denominator friends like Jules, Monica, and Avery. She has a bunch of antagonist males who want to make her life a living hell as well, and they do. The most curious part of this story is watching the intermingling between those who are supposed to want nothing to do with each other. The book ends on a cliffhanger ending which leads to all sorts of questions as to what will happen next.

Escaping Eleven is a combination of The City of Ember, The 100, Hunger Games, and Divergent.

3.5/5 stars
Eve's strength, endurance and tenacity are displayed beautifully in her determination to come up on top in the ring and escape the compound with only what was necessary. She felt real to the touch, but however the other side characters never really felt fleshed out, especially her love interest. They didn't really have a lot of chemistry to begin with and their relationship developed a bit too quickly (for my liking), unlike the plot, which was much slower than I expected. The direction the story was going in the beginning lead me to believe that the majority of the story will be spent aboveground, not in Compound Eleven, which majorly slowed the story down. However, despite the pacing issues I still found myself captivated by the story and never really lost interest in it. Scrolling through the reviews, I understand why Eve might be unlikeable, but I personally really respected her strength and resolve as a character. Her thoughts, her relationships and her livelihood were all detailed very well, which creates a sense of empathy towards her character throughout the book as she struggles with severing herself from her significant relationships and making a decision she can't go back on. Though it might've been draggy in some areas, the author has infused a kind of realness that's hard to capture in the book and created a compelling and convincing world. The ending was satisfying and fitting, and I'm looking forward to reading the next instalment.

I love me a dystopian, and this book absolutely fulfilled my craving. I could not put it down, and immediately knew I would be needing the next book. We follow the story of Eve, a surly and rather unhappy inhabitant of Compound Eleven. It's basically a crappy bunker town, at least for the Have-Nots like Eve and her friends and family. In fact, Eve's own brother was Octavia Blaked (it's a verb now), only instead of floating the mother for having a second child, they floated (reverse floated I suppose) the kid which is next-level cruel. So to say Eve isn't exactly enamored with the place would be a gross understatement.

She fights (voluntarily) in the pits, but she doesn't really want to fight forever. This is how she meets Wren, an upper-level privileged sort that decided to take part in a fight for funsies. (In truth, I think Wren may have a serious anger management problem, but that is an issue for the next book to tackle.) Eve gets beat up pretty badly, and even though Wren kind of feels bad, it just cements what Eve has always known: she needs to get out of there.

What ensues is Eve formulating an escape plan while simultaneously falling for Wren. This complicates matters, of course, but his position is also helpful to her plans. She's also quite remiss to trust him, or any of her existing friends with her intentions, which makes sense (I mean, things don't seem to end well for many folks) but obviously this creates a lot of conflict.

There were some predictable moments, which is the only actual negative I can offer. Otherwise, I was deeply invested in Eve's escape plans, as well as her evolving relationships with her friends, family, and Wren. I also liked reading about the hierarchy of Compound Eleven itself, and there was mention of other compounds (and the world in general) outside of Eleven, so I am really looking forward to reading more about those mysteries in the upcoming books!

Bottom Line: A very solid start to a series that has hooked me with its appropriately desperate main character navigating a pretty intense and uncomfortable dystopian world.

A Dystopian story through and through, civilization was forced to go underground because of climate change. As always we have a corrupt system within Compound Eleven that is handling everything the wrong way. We get Eve, a strong girl that tries her best to get to the outside, then we have Wren, a boy that wants to protect her. We get Eve's inner thoughts and see the world in a very interesting way, as the author did the narration in a way we still get some mystery behind them. The story is well developed and flows while reading it, the world-building is good, the main characters are in their teens but the story is not meant as a YA novel, but we get a lot of characters and they were very well developed. I can't wait to see what awaits these two in the next installment!

To think Chisholm's "Escaping Eleven" is yet another dystopian young adult novel with a female antagonist would be inaccurate. This one is different. The female antagonist is very strong-willed and the love story is much more complicated than other stories I have read. There is more depth to the characters and the crazy world they live in as well. While the ending may seem obvious at the beginning of the story, there are still several suspenseful moments that make the reader wonder, "Will there be an escape from 'Eleven?'"

Dark and gritty, romantic and thrilling, ESCAPING ELEVEN is a fantastic new entry in the world of YA dystopian fiction.

When the world became too hot to sustain life, humans had no other option but to build compounds deep within the earth. An obvious reflection of classism, these compounds put the highest class at the top with the lows and the “disposables” at the very bottom. The lower levels are a tough place, and most characters have had to adapt to their surroundings. Eve is one such example — an occasional match fighter in the ring, but even her strength and her ability to fight doesn’t always keep her safe. She meets Wren in such a fight and the aftermath is something she could have never predicted. An alliance with a Preme, which is definitely something that goes against her beliefs.

Anything that’s labeled as dark, dirty, and gritty are always books that I know will appeal to me, and ESCAPING ELEVEN was certainly all of those. The characters were, hands down, my favorite aspect, and every one is dealing with some sort of trauma, most of it stemming from the conditions they’ve had to endure in the compound. The lower levels are dark, filled with dangerous things and even more dangerous people, and everyone isn’t the lower levels has been a victim of it. Though even the upper-echelon Premes aren’t sheltered from pain and heartbreak. Wren’s backstory with several mentions of personal struggle have been hinted at, and I can’t wait until his story unfolds.

I originally rated this 4 stars, but I have to up it 5. I stayed up until 3 in the morning to finish it and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Any time a book forces me to forgo sleep, it’s one that becomes an instant favorite and ESCAPING ELEVEN has definitely become an instant favorite.

*Many thanks to Entangled Teen for sending a copy my way.

Hope is as dim as the lighting in this underground society, where the levels you're born on determine your worth.

Eve has just finished schooling and has six weeks to decide which job she'll take for the rest of her life. Of course, each and every one of these jobs has one purpose...to support the lives of those on the levels above her. After they killed her younger brother, this is something she can never do. Forced underground generations ago, she lives in a society where the level of tunnels you live on determines your social ranking. So far, she's done well thanks to her father's training as a fighter in the favorite past time battles on her floor, but she sees that only as a preparation for her true, secret goal—to escape to the world outside...even if it means she'll be scorched to death by the sun. For her, freedom is worth any price, and she will escape. No matter what.

It's been awhile since I picked up a dystopian, and this one kept me pretty much in the pages until I hit the end. It is well written with characters, which dig in with dreams, emotions, pain and hope. It's complexly woven, has surprises around every bend, includes action as well as heart-breaking scenes, and strips human nature down to its bare bones. There's darkness and hope. Cruelty and love. There's everything that a good dystopian needs to have.

Eve comes across harsh and with more corners than the stones of the tunnels she lives in. I never really decided if I like her or not, and sometimes I rooted for her, while other times, I wondered what she was thinking. But it fits her character. After all, she's spent her entire life not only in less than ideal living circumstances, but as a heartless fighter. While the author tries to make her more 'soft' by adding volunteer work and a few unexpected friendships, it isn't enough to round off her harsher side. But for some reason, that doesn't hurt the story, and I'd have picked up book two already if it were out to continue Eve's tale.

The world itself is dark, dreary, and pretty well described. I could almost smell the dusty air, sweat and sadness. Almost. While some moments are well built out, there's a bit of further depth missing...not only on the world building end from the senses, but also on the background and more than a couple of the characters. But there's still more to come in the series, and I am excited to see if this brings more on this end.

And there's romance. This sweetens the pot and takes over the story line more than once. I do love the hero in this one, although I'm not sure of his background or the motives behind his actions completely, either. (As said, missing background on many characters) Still, he has the heart of gold Eve's missing and adds the necessary zest.

Dystopian fans will want to grab this one up, especially those who like more than a dusting of romance. There are a few genre cliches, and the world building does remind of other dystopian reads, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this read. It was fun to dive into a well done dystopian again...and I am looking forward to book two.

I received an ARC and enjoyed this one enough to read it in only two sittings.

It’s not clear from the blurb, but this is actually the first book in a trilogy. While I found the resolution satisfactory, there’s still quite a few plot threads left hanging.

“Sometimes I wonder if it is better to be alive and caged or dead and free. I guess if I’m fighting for my life right now, I believe the former.
It is always better to be alive.”


To be honest, the entire plot is basically summed up by the book title: Eve is determined to escape the underground Compound Eleven before she’s forced to pick a job and swear allegiance to the Premes, the residents of the top floor. That means she has just over a month to figure out where she’s going – and how. While she’s fascinated by the surface, everyone knows that it’s uninhabitable due to unrelenting heat, so her only choice is escaping to one of the connecting compounds. But she’s keeping her escape a secret from her friends, and things get even more complicated when she somehow ends up befriending a Preme after facing him in a boxing match. But her friendship with Wren leads her to question a lot of her assumptions about Premes and what she wants from life. Is one person enough to make staying in Eleven worth it, or is their relationship just another cage?

“You know, if anyone bears a resemblance to the sun, it’s you.”
“Me?”
“A dangerous, intense, burning ball of fire? Yeah, that sounds like you.”


Eve is angry, confused and more likely to punch someone than talk to them. In other words, I loved her. From a young age, she’s felt betrayed by the Compound, especially the Premes, and she’s just naive enough to think that she can escape to somewhere better. The pacing is slow and a bit uneven. There’s a lot of daily life bits – practicing for the fights, feeding the Noms, just hanging around with her friends, interspersed with more action-oriented scenes. This didn’t bother me that much as the slower scenes gave us more insight into Eve. And that’s really what the story is about – Eve coming to terms with how she feels about her place in Compound Eleven, in her family, and among her friends. She starts out angry and a bit naive, and over the course of a little over a month, she grows as a person. There’s a lot to be said about tarring groups with the same brush (all Premes are bad, all guards are bad) and judging people without fully comprehending their motives. Plus, she comes to understand herself better – while she wants her freedom, even if it means her death, there are some lengths she’s not willing to go to. Finding out what those are, though, is quite the story.

“Besides, it’s kind of hard to get a girl out of your head once she sucker punches you in the face. Never a dull moment with you, Eve.”


Wren’s more of a cipher. He verged a bit too close to the “too perfect to be true” love interest. There were hints of more to him – why was he in the fighting ring against Eve to begin with? – and other references to a violent nature, but I never felt like that was fully explored. Part of it, I think, is that we only get Eve’s POV, and she’s downright snippy about spending time with a Preme. She’s trying to convince herself she doesn’t care about Wren or why he’s there, and frankly she tries to avoid talking to him as much as possible. The development of their relationship felt realistic to me, and I liked how Wren and his friends fit into Eve’s friend group.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and I will definitely be picking up the next one. If you’re looking for a character-driven dystopian romance, this is the book for you!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

"Maybe it never really made sense to hate an entire society; maybe it never made sense that all of them up there were evil in the first place. The actions of the few should never speak for the many--this is something I already know" (chapter 28).

Chisholm writes a dystopian society that mirrors ones found in The Hunger Games and Divergent, but has enough punch in the storyline to stand on it's own legs. I was completely captivated, letting dishes pile up and my to-do list go untouched just so that I could find out what would happen next.

Eve is a darker, scarred character. Her life has not been a walk in the park, but really, could that describe anyone's life in the lower floors of Compound Eleven? In order to help forget about the constant oppression they face every day, many people on the lower floors have taken up a hobby or career in fighting. Eve's father has been training her to go pro since she was a young girl, but when the time draws near to commit to a career after finishing school, she just can't force herself. The only thing she wants is to escape and taste freedom.

I liked that Eve grew up hard and constantly has to choose to be hard to deal with the horrors in her life. It gave her more depth to explore throughout the story. When Wren, the elite boy from the top floor, enters her life, she really has to wrestle with whether she should close herself off from people or not. And through her constant preparations to seek freedom, she finds out that she might have put her trust in the wrong person.

Some thing I struggled with is that I really wanted more fleshing out of Wren's story, who was definitely one of my favorite characters. Eve is pretty single minded, which means that Wren learns way more about her than she learns about him. I hope that we get to hear a lot more about Wren in the next book, since this one ended with a lot of open questions. Actually, some of her friends could've used some fleshing out, too. I also found the description of the book misleading to the plot--just little things, like the fact that they don't actually fight for their food, but more for a hobby, career, or survival tactic. The comment about Wren being the edge she needs to find her freedom isn't quite true either since she really focuses most of the book on trying to figure it out on her own. Finally, the ending was a little predictable, but it did end in such a way that you're anxious to know what happens next.

Okay, how do I figure out how to fast forward time so that I can read book two?

I absolutely love dystopian books, especially those with a social hierarchy the main character wants to break from. Escaping Eleven checks all those boxes. There even a hint of potential romance? (No spoilers!)

Eve is a badass who that is completely sick of being confined and refuses to work under the Premes. Wren is one of those Premes she can’t stand. But when they meet in the fighting pit, their paths become intertwined. But she isn’t happy about it. He actually beat her in the pit. Embarrassing her because no one should lose to a Preme, especially her.

The whole story is very well done. The descriptions of new-to-Eve things are unique and really paint the picture of the world. There’s a scene in The 100 that I immediately thought of at one point and I was just totally in love from there.

I highly recommend picking this up and giving it a read if you are a fan of classic YA dystopians (The 100, The Selection concept mash up).

It’s been a good while since I’ve read a dystopian novel and thankfully Escaping Eleven didn’t disappoint. The world building is intriguing, a world in which the sun has overtaken the planet, nothing grows, life can not be sustained above ground, and so the human population moves beneath the earth. An underground society with different levels of worth to those who live on each level. This is where we meet our main character, Eve.

From the moment the story begins, it pulls no punches, literally, figuratively - all the ways. Eve comes out swinging as we are introduced to the way life is for her. A fighter with a damaged history and a desire to seek out freedom. I never completely liked her and quite honestly I don’t think I was intended to like her in what I hope is the first foray into this world of hers. She’s a product of her environment and honestly the life of Compound Eleven is harsh.

Which brings me to the delight that is her counterpoint and love interest, Wren. From the moment these two lay eyes on each other, the combustion of their chemistry, the differences of their lives in the hierarchy of Eleven and all the other things involving these two, couldn’t be more explosive. They meet head on in the ring as they fight with fists and fury. Wren was likable for me, I also was left wanting/needing to know more about him and his. . .’issues’.

The ending of this novel is powder keg and it’s awesome. If you enjoy young adult dystopian novels or like me, it’s been a while since you jumped into the pond with this genre, give Escaping Eleven a gander. It’s fun and intriguing, the characters crack open and let you delve into their lives and their society and that ending. . .you’re going to want the next book, stat.

Thank you NetGalley and Entangled Teen for the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

*I received a copy from the publisher. This does not affect my review.*

I might have gone into this one with too much expectation? I will say it was a good read, and I did enjoy parts like the basis worldbuilding and characters. The details were definitely there, this book doesn't shy away from hard truths and gritty detail. That said... Not much really happens for much of the story, and as thick as this story is, I think that is what really disappointed me the most. There is so much potential, and so much right about it, but this is a long book for so little actual progress or development in the characters' story.

A large part of this likely stems from the characters being overall unlikable, which is a big part of the story for me. Wren was good...though a little too perfect for my tastes, but was the most likeable character and had more actual personality than the others who were more flat in nature. I can see all these problems being fixable in a sequel, I've seen it before in a few of my favorites even, but it's not an easy task. That said, I liked the concept, and feel more attention on balancing these areas can really make this series stand out and shine!

That said, it was original in many ways, which I liked, and can see this being a big hit with the right audience.

4.5 stars

This book... this book hit every nerve and emotion in my heart. From page one I was hooked with the story, Eve was such a real and raw character. She wasn't the delicate flower I used to read in YA stories nor the heroine type character from every dystopian book I've read with zero flaws from their perfect face to the "I'll die from my people" mentality. No, she was real in every single way. From her bruised face that didn't magically go away the next day to her combative loyal character. I loved that you could feel her pain and struggles. That she actually felt the things that happened to her. That she didn't just rush to forgive and forget because let's face it, that's not realistic at all. I loved her friends and friendships. I really liked her interactions with her parents and that the author took the time to explain why it was how it was. I loved that her past made her who she was but at the same time it didn't held her back but pushed her to change her future. In few words I just love Eve.
Now, Wren... my big and brute, Wren. I -sometimes- wish I could read his POV because if his actions spoke so loud i can't imagine how I'd have been read what he was feeling or thinking. He was such a likable character i cannot wait to read more about him in book two.
This book made me emotional a lot of times. More than I expected and I loved every minute of it. It was a beautiful and unique series that I'm excited to keep reading about.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review

Escaping Eleven started out strong, and had all the things I look for in a book. First persona narrative (yay!) a strong female lead (yes!) and a strong synopsis that’s sure to keep me reading. The start of the novel was a great start into introducing us to the main/important things. I did feel however that it slowed down quite a bit towards the middle and into the end, and then we suddenly dove deep into action. It remained a page turner for me, but I felt like it either felt rushed or the action wasn’t distributed enough throughout. I did enjoy the character development, and loved getting attached to some of them throughout. The story felt familiar, but I loved that about it. It reminded me of some of my favorite titles. It’s the first in a trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one. If you’re a devoted dystopian reader, and love books like Divergent, Hunger Games and An Ember in The Ashes you’ll really enjoy this one!