First up, I was provided with an ARC with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my non biased review. We as readers follow from the perspective of Rae, a teen girl with a cool haircut who has lost the ability to speak. Through her we experience many things such as wild heart touching (and heart breaking) adventures in multiple worlds to learning about the other well fleshed out ‘main’ characters and their unique situations, and how they have been thrown together in order to help save Earth from a world ending cataclysm predicted by an AI algorithm. We get the chance to fall for many minor characters too, all with their own unique quirks. The fact the Rae cannot talk doesn’t affect the dialogue or story at all for me which I take as a good sign of a well written character.

I feel this book would be greatly enjoyed by young teens and seems to be aimed at that audience although it does deal with some very serious and adult topics (though with a fairly light hand). I still very much enjoyed it as an adult reader though!

As with most books that I choose to read, I was taken in by the blurb. I admit that I did go into it warily, it seemed to touch on a few new age type subjects and I’m forever the skeptic. Those things are dealt to readers like me with lightly though, and my interest as an environmentalist and a tech nerd were well satisfied with how the author deals with all the multiple subjects meshing together.

I read the English version, I believe the original manuscript was written in French. No doubt things get lost or altered in translation but I felt it was a good translation even though I didn’t read the original or finalised English book due to reading an ARC.

I really hope this series continues on, I throughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy but very enjoyable sci fi/fantasy read.

Root is the perfect title for this book. I had trouble getting into at first, but as I continued, the characters really started to burrow into my brain and I got attached. The concept is super interesting, and the execution plot-wise was really well-done. It relies on suspension of disbelief, but no more than in recent YA dystopian. Very interesting fusion of sci-fi and new age ideas. The prose is where I had more trouble, as it was disjointed and relied too heavily on cliches. However, this is the English language debut for this author so I think that this can really improve in further books.

7 Teenagers — 7 Chakras — 7 keys to save humanity

The year is 2035 and the world is facing its own end as predicted by the AI, Spirit Era, in two years time without major changes. This books follows Rae, a fifteen year old who has chosen silence, along with six other teenagers as they work together to find the seven keys. Each has been hidden in one of seven virtual reality Mantras designed to mimic the most likely disasters the world is facing. Can they succeed in finding the first key, or will all hope for humanity be lost?

This novel would be an excellent introduction to the SciFi genre for YA readers. I really enjoyed the level of research and detail that went into this story from the various martial arts techniques; information surrounding each of the chakras with their associated element and color; as well as the technological information provided. The characters truly embody their associated Chakra even if they don’t fully understand what that means at the beginning of the story. I also enjoyed the consistent blend of technology and spirituality.

The only complaint I have for this novel is that it’s fairly slow to start due to all the information and world building that takes place. However, once past that point, I couldn’t put this book down.

While I think this story would be great for YA SciFi fans, there is mature content including violence and death.

Overall Rating: 4.5⭐️

Root is a very interesting concept that I felt was well written given the its complexity. At times, it did feel as though I was reading an educational book rather than a YA novel, but I did enjoy all that I learned.

It took me a while to get through this book and I was not fully invested in the characters by the end of the story. I will say that I am looking forward to watching this story grow, however, due to its really unique concept.

Root: Spirit Era by Aurélie Benattar
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It’s 2035 and an AI has predicted that the world will end in 2 years. The only hope is if 7 teenagers, that the AI has chosen, enter a simulation world to retrieve 7 keys to saving the world from ruin. We follow Rae, one of the seven chosen ones, on this journey.
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What I liked:
-I love a good dystopian. One that is not the same old “chosen girl has to be brave and be a leader of a rebellion” trope. This story felt original and was really interesting because I was genuinely intrigued what would come next.
-I liked the chosen seven and the diversity in personalities they had. In this book we got some good backstories for like four of them but I’m hoping to hear more from ALL of them in the upcoming books.
-I liked where this part of the story ended but am also slightly frustrated because I went into this book naively thinking it was a standalone. Then halfway through I realized, to my disappointment, that there would be much more to the story. Not disappointed in a bad way,but in that I was really excited to see how it ended and now I have to wait.
-There are baby goats. I mean, c’mon.
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to when the next is available.

End of the-world-type thing. A random selection of 7 young individuals across the world, were trained to go into an AI world to find 7 keys. Each can bend a certain chakra and other ability to help themselves survive in the AI world. They all face a challenge that will help them develop as an individual and as a team.

I love how small phrases were used from other books/films. I saw a few that caught my eye "Shock, Barrel, and Lock" ugh there was another one...

But it is no different from Hunger Games and Maze Runner... just different elements of ability.

✨Dystopian
✨AI simulations
✨Chakras

This is such an interesting concept! I love books like this that address the issues of the world and have a countdown and a selection of talented people to try to save the world. The testing simulation was very interesting and all the complicated society woven in there. I can totally see that as a possible outcome to our current social trajectory. This is the first in a series. Excited to see what happens next!

Thank you to the author and netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Book Summary:

We've seen several tales about AI bringing about the end of civilization as we know it. But what if there was an AI intent to do the opposite – to protect humanity at all costs? AI program Spirit Era has calculated that the world will end in two years, assuming humanity doesn't do something to prevent it.

So a team must be formed with the intent of saving humanity. It will be comprised of seven teenagers to represent the seven chakras or keys. Seven people are standing between humanity and the potential end of everything.

My Review:

I love that Aurelie Benattar decided to twist up the AI stereotype in Root. Yes, there are several other tropes to replace that stereotype, but it balances out. What tropes am I talking about? Well, mainly teenagers saving the world, but that was probably pretty obvious, huh?

There are seven main characters in Root, though only one primary perspective (Rae). The singular perspective makes it easier to keep everything in order, especially as secondary characters get introduced. Overall, I appreciated the complex cast of characters involved in this adventure.

I have to say that I enjoyed Root more than I expected (or feared). I almost wish that it had been around when I was a bit younger because teenage me would have gobbled this book up and begged for more.

Highlights:
Science Fiction/Dystopian Blend
Saving the World
Multiple Characters
Environmentalism Focus

Trigger Warnings:
Famine (mentioned)
Global Disaster

The plot of this book caught my attention, and made me very excited to read it. I have been loving dystopian novels recently, and this sounded amazing.

The main character, Rae, is very interesting. Reading about the death of her father and her life after was emotional. Her background story was very well written, and I think her character would be relatable to readers.

I really enjoyed the messages from the AI creater and the journal entries through the book. It really helped to break apart the book keep my attention.

I just overall really enjoyed the plot and whole idea of this book! The technology is really cool, and the author really thought through everything. Some of the characters were strange at first, but they grew on me as I read and had good development throughout the book.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopian novels or YA fantasy!

Rating: 4.5/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

This book is great for people who want to dip their toes into the YA sci-fi world. I really enjoyed the action, the blend of technology and spirituality, a small amount of romance, finding oneself and family.

I thought the blending of technology and spirituality was done really well, it is obvious that this author did their research on both of those topics to make this book blend so well. The plot of this is different from other Sci-Fi that I have read, I found this one easier to connect with. I don’t know if it was from all the attention to details in the book at the beginning or if it's just the way this author has with her words and brings the story to life.

I thought the characters in this book were easy to connect with and I found myself relating to a few of them more but that’s pretty normal. I love that we have 7 different characters, from different parts of the world brought together to find a way to help our earth keep living on. It all started when the Keeper created an advanced AI program that predicts when the world will end and its only 2 years aways without human intervention. The 7 different young adults/teens were chosen to help with this mission and as a reader you will be sucked into a computer version of the world and must figure out what the 7 keys are, and how to save our planet. The book does start off a little slow but that is because you will be getting to learn about the characters and all the information about their mission they have picked for, after that it's all fast paced and you won’t want to put the book down.

I thought having the 7 characters connected to the 7 different Chakra was a great idea. They all have to learn more about themselves and why they have that Chakra instead of the others and how to use theirs to their advantage. The characters all have great character development throughout and at the end of this book, and I can’t wait to see what some of the characters are still hiding and if they will ever come clean to the others.

Overall, this first book of a series is great and if you love YA Sci-Fi or you want to try to see if you would like it I would recommend this book.

I want to thank Aurelie Benattar and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

3.5/5 stars! So I was really intrigued by the concept of chakra-based conceptualization and since the Root chakra is the first chakra, it felt like a fitting title for the story. I was also impressed by Rae's character. I wasn't sure how a mute character would work when so much of story-telling relies on dialogue. The author handled it well, and I didn't feel the story suffered from it. This worked as a good YA dystopian story, although there were some areas where the writing lost power and was hard to follow. Overall, a good first book in this series and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

You've got AI. You've got social commentary. You've got a dystopian story to set it all in place. All of those make for a book that I will very likely enjoy and I did. It had a few issues. It can take some time to get into it. However, once I started it, I had such a grand time.