A poignant tale of love and friendship in a world beyond hope…
Outpost Three: a huddle of crumbling buildings choked by a concrete wall. Cracked pavement, rusted metal, splintering boards. Huge robotic Sentries police the streets, but the Ten Laws are broken every time one turns its back.
Eden is determined, smart, and a born survivor. Stripped of her memories and dumped on the streets of the Outpost, slavers and starvation are only the beginning of her problems. A devastating conflict is coming that threatens to consume her world and tear her newfound family apart.
Life is harsh. It makes no exceptions. Not even for the innocent.
Outpost Three: a huddle of crumbling buildings choked by a concrete wall. Cracked pavement, rusted metal, splintering boards. Huge robotic Sentries police the streets, but the Ten Laws are broken every time one turns its back.
Eden is determined, smart, and a born survivor. Stripped of her memories and dumped on the streets of the Outpost, slavers and starvation are only the beginning of her problems. A devastating conflict is coming that threatens to consume her world and tear her newfound family apart.
Life is harsh. It makes no exceptions. Not even for the innocent.
My Rating
4.5
My Review
E will grasp onto
readers from the very beginning and hold onto them throughout the entire
ride. It was hard to stop reading at all, with the fast pacing and
engaging plot. A must-read YA, E is dark, exciting, heart breaking, and
thoroughly enjoyable.
There is a lot more than meets the eye with this novel. When Eden first awakes, remembering absolutely nothing of her past, readers are thrown right alongside her into this new world, with Wrath crafted and developed gorgeously. It is a dark kind of future in which the dangers of criminal gambling, extreme poverty, and human trafficking seem a lot more like our past. You know, aside from the robot law enforcers.
Not only does Eden have to worry about figuring out who she used to be, but she has to survive sickness, starvation, and being sold to slavery. One little mishap could have her facing deadly consequences at the hands of Matt, the sector's criminal mastermind and resident mob boss type, or losing herself all over again to the unstoppable Sentries. If this weren't already bad enough, a criminal powerhouse from sector two wants to invade and engage in a full out war - and, supposedly, he makes Matt looks like a ball of sunshine. There's definitely no shortage of plot, stakes and pace in this novel. However, all of the major conflicts did have the whole "identity wipe" thing seem pretty forgotten. Eden didn't spend time at all really trying to figure out who she used to be, which is understandable, but I still would have liked to see more consistency in that. However, this is only the first book and the next installment of the series may very well bring this back to light and answer all my questions.
But if E has a strong plot, it has even stronger characters. Eden is a great POV to read from, as she always felt true to her character and held admirable qualities. I enjoyed Matt as a character, as he is so incredibly complex, as well as Miranda. Both of those characters have juicy layers under hard exteriors, and that's always fun. But what really stole my heart was the relationship between characters.
If you know me, you know that I love a good, swoony, romantic couple. Well, one of my all-time favorite relationships is from this novel. And it's not a romantic one. Yes, it still both comfortably warmed and achingly burned my heart, but the relationship between Eden and Oscar is platonic. Although they aren't related, they really feel like a brother and sister. I loved every scene they had together, as well as the lighter tone Eden had only with Oscar around.
All in all, I loved E. and I definitely recommend it. In fact, I have half a mind to break the law and have a Sentry wipe my mind, just so I could read this book again for the first time.
There is a lot more than meets the eye with this novel. When Eden first awakes, remembering absolutely nothing of her past, readers are thrown right alongside her into this new world, with Wrath crafted and developed gorgeously. It is a dark kind of future in which the dangers of criminal gambling, extreme poverty, and human trafficking seem a lot more like our past. You know, aside from the robot law enforcers.
Not only does Eden have to worry about figuring out who she used to be, but she has to survive sickness, starvation, and being sold to slavery. One little mishap could have her facing deadly consequences at the hands of Matt, the sector's criminal mastermind and resident mob boss type, or losing herself all over again to the unstoppable Sentries. If this weren't already bad enough, a criminal powerhouse from sector two wants to invade and engage in a full out war - and, supposedly, he makes Matt looks like a ball of sunshine. There's definitely no shortage of plot, stakes and pace in this novel. However, all of the major conflicts did have the whole "identity wipe" thing seem pretty forgotten. Eden didn't spend time at all really trying to figure out who she used to be, which is understandable, but I still would have liked to see more consistency in that. However, this is only the first book and the next installment of the series may very well bring this back to light and answer all my questions.
But if E has a strong plot, it has even stronger characters. Eden is a great POV to read from, as she always felt true to her character and held admirable qualities. I enjoyed Matt as a character, as he is so incredibly complex, as well as Miranda. Both of those characters have juicy layers under hard exteriors, and that's always fun. But what really stole my heart was the relationship between characters.
If you know me, you know that I love a good, swoony, romantic couple. Well, one of my all-time favorite relationships is from this novel. And it's not a romantic one. Yes, it still both comfortably warmed and achingly burned my heart, but the relationship between Eden and Oscar is platonic. Although they aren't related, they really feel like a brother and sister. I loved every scene they had together, as well as the lighter tone Eden had only with Oscar around.
All in all, I loved E. and I definitely recommend it. In fact, I have half a mind to break the law and have a Sentry wipe my mind, just so I could read this book again for the first time.
What a beautiful review, Justine! Thank you so much for taking the time to read E. I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and I can see through your comments that you really "got" a lot of things about the story. You are definitely right, by the way. The second book begins to focus on Eden's past and will answer some of the questions that you are left wondering at the end of the first book.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Justine entirely. The fact there are so many questions is a measure of the complexity of Kate Wrath's world building. E is a thought-provoking read that I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys asking questions and doesn't want to have every answer handed to her on a plate.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jane. I do like to give my readers a lot of questions to chew on. Sometimes the answers are there, but hidden. As a reader, I love to have the opportunity to figure things out, so I try to give that to my readers in my stories as well. :)
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