Hello guys! Today I'm gonna be taking some time to bake and prepare some new Ink & Batter entries but I'm gonna leave you with a new Saturday Pages entry!
I'm trying to find a balance between reading review books, books that are newly released and books I've had in the TBR pile for a while and this one is a new relase that has been in Kindle only since this Tuesday! It is part of two of my challenges: the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 and the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!
The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Murder Complex was one debut that I was quite highly in my list for this year, since I'm a huge lover of everything dystopia. And although it wasn't absolutely mindblowing, it wasn't a disappointment by any means.
There are quite a few unexpected twists and revelations to this one, and I'm gonna do my best to keep this review spoiler free, even if I'll have to be a bit vague here and there.
The Murder Complex is told in dual POV and we follow Meadow and Zephyr on their different paths until they cross and then we experience the events from both their sides. Their voices were quite distinct when we were following them separatedly but once they got together they started sounding a bit too similar on occasion, except towards the end when the voices became more distinctive again.
My favourite part of the book has to be the world building. I loved how real and gritty and chilling the world inside the perimeter felt. At first we don't really know much about how such a society came to be but as we get more answers it becomes more bleak and more scary. This is a world were humanity is not very humane and survival by any means necessary is not the norm but encouraged.
Meadow has been taught to fight and to be strong and kill whenever necessary by her father, to be able to find a job and help feed her family in the very harsh society that they live on. Zephyr is one of the Wards, orphans that do the hard tasks of corpse dispossing and cleaning afterwards, but there's more to him, a darker side that he sort of knows about but can't control.
Then comes everything that I really cannot talk about cause all the spoilers start appearing. But we find out that some characters are more central to the plot and the world building that we thought. And the society and crimes we saw depiced so routinely were more cruel and orgnized than we thought at first.
There's a bit of romance in the book, but given all the mind control and conditioning going on in the society we encounter, it's quite hard to describe as insta-love. We're not really sure about what's real and what's been implanted in the end, and if you add all the stress and all the high stakes and the fights and the adrenaline, is not to hard to see how emotions are running high and how confusing things are for Meadow and Zephyr.
The ending is quite a cliffhanger and I'm quite excited to see where the author will solve it and where she'll take the story next, cause we've give a few glimpses that are very enticing! All in all, a very interesting debut with a greatly constructed world. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for the world building.
View all my reviews
I'm trying to find a balance between reading review books, books that are newly released and books I've had in the TBR pile for a while and this one is a new relase that has been in Kindle only since this Tuesday! It is part of two of my challenges: the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014 and the 2014 Book Blogger Summer Reading Program!
The Murder Complex by Lindsay CummingsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Murder Complex was one debut that I was quite highly in my list for this year, since I'm a huge lover of everything dystopia. And although it wasn't absolutely mindblowing, it wasn't a disappointment by any means.
There are quite a few unexpected twists and revelations to this one, and I'm gonna do my best to keep this review spoiler free, even if I'll have to be a bit vague here and there.
The Murder Complex is told in dual POV and we follow Meadow and Zephyr on their different paths until they cross and then we experience the events from both their sides. Their voices were quite distinct when we were following them separatedly but once they got together they started sounding a bit too similar on occasion, except towards the end when the voices became more distinctive again.
My favourite part of the book has to be the world building. I loved how real and gritty and chilling the world inside the perimeter felt. At first we don't really know much about how such a society came to be but as we get more answers it becomes more bleak and more scary. This is a world were humanity is not very humane and survival by any means necessary is not the norm but encouraged.
Meadow has been taught to fight and to be strong and kill whenever necessary by her father, to be able to find a job and help feed her family in the very harsh society that they live on. Zephyr is one of the Wards, orphans that do the hard tasks of corpse dispossing and cleaning afterwards, but there's more to him, a darker side that he sort of knows about but can't control.
Then comes everything that I really cannot talk about cause all the spoilers start appearing. But we find out that some characters are more central to the plot and the world building that we thought. And the society and crimes we saw depiced so routinely were more cruel and orgnized than we thought at first.
There's a bit of romance in the book, but given all the mind control and conditioning going on in the society we encounter, it's quite hard to describe as insta-love. We're not really sure about what's real and what's been implanted in the end, and if you add all the stress and all the high stakes and the fights and the adrenaline, is not to hard to see how emotions are running high and how confusing things are for Meadow and Zephyr.
The ending is quite a cliffhanger and I'm quite excited to see where the author will solve it and where she'll take the story next, cause we've give a few glimpses that are very enticing! All in all, a very interesting debut with a greatly constructed world. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for the world building.
View all my reviews
Ahhh, this book. The world-building was excellent! I really liked how well Cummings built it up and continued adding little details. Honestly, I was disappointed when I read this book, and not impressed. I only downloaded it months ago because when Harper first uploaded it to Edelweiss, EVERYONE was freaking out, so I was like why not. But I wasn't impressed. I think I'll read the sequel though! So glad there will be a sequel :D
ReplyDeleteFantastic review, Pili!
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
I was so entranced by the world building that even if Zephy's POV wasn't my favourite I really managed to enjoy the book a lot! I felt pacing was a bit uneven, but wow... the world building blew me away!
DeleteThank you, Alyssa!!
Glad you enjoyed it Pili, I haven't heard such good things about this book but I love how you described that it turns out in a way that we don't expect it. I really do like the darker world building in this one, so it sounds awesome. I will give it a go still. Lovely review!
ReplyDeleteThe world building is fantastic on this one, Jeann! And there were quite a few twists that I didn't see coming!
DeleteI hope you'll enjoy it if you check it out, Jeann!
I am so glad to see you enjoyed it (and you're not alone in your enjoyment either!) :D You know it didn't work out so well for me (even if I had hoped it would have) but I am so glad to see you had better luck! :)
ReplyDeleteLovely review, Pili! :)
Rashika @ The Social Potato
Thank you, Rashika! I think it's my fascination with the world building what made me enjoy this book so much!
DeleteGreat review sweetie. <3 Aw, I'm glad you enjoyed this book :D I have seen so many not like it.. sigh. So seeing that you like it makes me more excited for it :D Thank you for sharing and being honest. <3
ReplyDeleteThank you sweetie! You know taste varies a lot, and I really managed to enjoy the book loads!
Delete