Komal Mikaelson

Initial Reaction After Completion



Why? Why, am I always deceived by pretty covers? I mean just look at the cover.
LOOK AT IT.
It is so pwweetttyy.
And the story it encapsulates: dreadful, painful.

You know I hate biology. And I absolutely loathe crop management. I never understood that topic because I never bothered learning it. It was plain ol' boring. Now imagine a book that pops 'genetics of wheat' every other page.
It is a big deal I completed it at all.

The book felt like a stinky, lacklustre mishmash of
[b:Legend|9275658|Legend (Legend, #1)|Marie Lu|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333909141s/9275658.jpg|14157512], [b:Under the Never Sky|11594257|Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky, #1)|Veronica Rossi|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1356591725s/11594257.jpg|15093785] and [b:Gone with the Wind|18405|Gone with the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328025229s/18405.jpg|3358283]. All the major points constituting the plot are derived from the said books and presented in an unflattering manner, divesting it of all it's initial charm.

The Plot

The book presents a divided world. It's a story when, the humans, blinded by their greed and hubris, advanced so far in the medical and technological sciences they started to believe they were God. But there was a small group which was against all the genetic manipulation and abstained from supporting the fanatics. So, when the wrath of God fell, the fanatical scientists were "Reduced", marking the birth of a race which could not even speak properly. The abstainers became the Luddites, caretakers of the rest of humanity. The most superior of them all.

The first half of the book was all over the place. I couldn't make neither head or tale of whatever the hell was happening.
Too much new jargon presented in a chaotic fashion: utter confusion.

I understand every book has a new setting, a new realm which is unraveled slowly as the story progresses. But in here, instead of gaining insights into the plot, it was all piled up in a disorienting manner, which totally messed up the plot.

But, even then, at least the story was progressing, albeit slowly. And then comes the second half.
God!
There were many complications that had studiously come up in the first half that had the potential to make it an interesting read. It would have been fun to see how the protagonist deals with them all.

But no.
It felt, everything sorted itself out perfectly. Every fucking thing. I mean, every hurdle, every difficulty that could liven up the book, resolved perfectly, a little too perfectly, paving way for a lazy attempt at Happily Ever After.

The Characters

Elliot

She is just a doormat. She does have some moments of awesomeness, like when she stood up to her father, when she helps Ro, when she calls Kai on his bullshit. But that's it. They were surely admirable, but they didn't cut out her other faults. Most of the time she is being pushed all over the place by her father, by Tatiana or Kai.
Ah, Kai!
She is so utterly stupid, when it comes to that boy. Stop whining over him. Get over him. Move on.


There is a whole wide world outside of that one boy, girl. But no, every time he's rude to her, hurts her, she goes crawling back to him. Every single time. Ever heard of dignity or maybe self-respect?
I found it hard to believe she got over all the revulsion and disgust that had been drilled into her since her childhood. It all got washed away in the face of true LUURRVEE. Sorry, not buying it
And please girl, would you make up your mind, whether you want to stick to the protocols of your society or not? The whole indecisive, guilty monologues were getting old, pretty fast.

Baron North

It seemed as the author tried too hard to give him a villain-y feel. It just wasn't believable.
The man was intelligent and aware enough to see through Elliot's deception with wheat, but apparently imbecile enough to let his estate thrown out to dogs. As evil as he is, he can't be that callous to cut out a perfect asset, the orchard, for a better view of sea. Wait..what?
How can he be that stupid? His character was too underdeveloped. He was portrayed as stupid and sharp interchangeably as the script needed. He doesn't know shit about workings of a farm and spends money frivolously. He doesn't care about his workers/Reduced/Posts and treats them harshly. Now, why would a Baron do that? Does he intentionally want his estate to fail and him bankrupt?

The whole character was riddled with discrepancies. Things were just not adding up and kept contradicting each other.

And the love story.
Not really a love story. Every thing felt too obvious. The flashbacks, the uncaring attitude, the "angst-ridden" love.
Who in their right minds could actually buy Kai's love for Olivia? Is everyone fucking blind? It was an exasperating attempt to introduce drama into the plot. It was glaringly obvious he didn't give a shit.
Consequently, the magnificent climax that we were supposed to be anxiously waiting for, fell completely flat.

Way too obvious.

The ending was too rushed. Everything was molded into a happy ending. We don't get to know what actually made Elliot reconcile to the advantages of genetic modification or what happens to rest of the world. We are just supposed to be happy because Kai and Elliot get together at the end. Unsatisfying.

This was a read-along with Cecile. You can read her rant review here.