Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Review of ALIVE





From New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler comes something utterly new: a gripping sci-fi adventure trilogy in the vein of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. A group of young adults awake in a mysterious enclosed space with no knowledge of who they are or how they got there…and an indomitable young woman must lead them not only to answers but to survival.

A young woman awakes trapped in an enclosed space. She has no idea who she is or how she got there. With only her instincts to guide her, she escapes her own confinement—and finds she’s not alone. She frees the others in the room and leads them into a corridor filled with the remains of a war long past. The farther these survivors travel, the worse are the horrors they confront. And as they slowly come to understand what this prison is, they realize that the worst and strangest possibilities they could have imagined don’t even come close to the truth.



Review:

Note: The author has asked to avoid all spoilers.

I didn't want to like this book ALIVE. The first chapter started off so similar to The Maze Runner that I was rolling my eyes. Oh no, here we go again.  Main character who wakes up and doesn't remember his name, his family or anything about the situation. A rip-off story line, only with a girl this time. Then the girl becomes a group, fighting to discover what's happening to them. More first person point of view; full of short choppy sentences. Ugh.

Then I got caught up in the action and it turned out to be nothing like The Maze Runner, other than minor similarities. The pace just kept going and going. Each chapter brought a new revelation. Or each chapter ended with another great twist. I couldn't avoid paying attention. And within a few chapters I cared about Em, like I never cared for the characters in that other dystopian. 

I can't clearly say why, but I identified with Em. The plot made me curious in a good way. I wanted to find out what happened next. I worried about characters large and small. It's hard to review without giving away any spoilers, but I so appreciated that my questions were ANSWERED in this book. That's right! It didn't end with more questions than when it started. The reader finds out why they are there and where there is. 

Thank you to Scott Sigler for that. Thanks for not making this another frustrating-wait-for-the-sequel type book. I really enjoyed this read. Blew through it in about three days. Found it fun and entertaining with plenty of action and excitement, which I shall not detail to ruin the story. Great twists and yet the whole plot made sense. There was nothing that couldn't be explained logically. 

Big thumbs up! Read it for yourself.

I received a copy from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

1 comment:

  1. I'm thrilled you enjoyed ALIVE!

    Yes, no avoiding a similar start to THE MAZE RUNNER. I wrote the first draft of this book back in 2008, worked on it between other books for years. I didn't learn about Mr. Dashner's book until late 2012, when I was at a convention telling someone about this awesome story open that I had, and they said something to the effect of, "uh, have you heard of THE MAZE RUNNER?"

    I was pretty bummed out and considered dropping ALIVE, but as you pointed out, they are very, very different books. I'm glad I stuck with it because I'm happy with the final product, and with ALIGHT, which is the second book in the trilogy.

    And THANK YOU for not posting spoilers in the review!

    -Scott-

    ReplyDelete