The first few chapters had me hooked. I love a good dystopian novel. However, wished there was more interaction between the characters we follow, and the ending was not the best.

3.5 rounded up

First of all, I absolutely love the cover. I totally judged the book by it, and I think it represents the story well. 3.5 stars

What I liked:
- I'm not sure how to describe the writing other than effective. There's nothing super distinctive about the style but somehow the understated descriptions still made me have a lot of strong emotional reactions.
- This is less of a traditional dystopia series starter and more of an on-the-run adventure. Not fully what I expected.
- Ellen and everything around her.
- Everyone knows that they drug the water. I feel like in dystopias, it's normally a surprise and I thought it was so interesting

What I didn't like:
- The side characters are all much more memorable than Owyn and Tiegan. Owyn is getting there, but the focus on his race was a little messily integrated. I think it should've been a stronger plot point in general.
- The worldbuilding isn't super creative or memorable.
- There's no ending. There was all this running, but the most compelling emotional scenes happen earlier so there's no tension release.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that dystopian thriller element that I was looking for and enjoyed how everything flowed well overall. The concept was strong and enjoyed the overall feel of this book. The characters were everything that I wanted and the use of emotions worked overall. Susan Baker has a strong writing style and left me wanting to read more in this world and from Susan Baker.