Keturah Paice

When you start this book you are drawn to the amazing imagery and visual picture which is evident from page one. The world that is designed by this author is simply stunning. The author has create mystery of her characters, whilst still giving the reader enough to allow you to bond with them. The book quickly explains that this is a dystopian society where status is based on hair colour. Gold being the top authority and brown being the bottom. Through the book the author introduces new concepts such as apporting which is described in such depth and realism the word quickly becomes part of your vocabulary.

From the first chapter to the last this books twists and turns. I have to admit to changing my opinion on several characters as their journey continued. There are areas of this book where the violence that occurs to the characters maybe hard to read especially for younger age groups. The violence is well written and pivotal to the storyline but in places I found myself putting the book down for five minutes before continuing with the read.

The book is written in the first person for all the individual characters which can be hard at times to keep up with at times. The author helps the reader with this with naming all the chapters so you know who’s voice you are seeing the story through. The author has helped further with this by including a short passage from the end of one chapter at the start of the new, when changing voice. This is a technique I have not observed previously but works very well.

The characters in this book are rounded and well written as previously mentioned I changed my opinion of them several times as the story developed. I have to admit however, to having one favourite with sat with me throughout the story. The characters at times all show that they are flawed and make mistakes. There are enough characters to make the story engaging but not so many that you lose track of the plot.

It is hard to quantify just how good this debut novel from Keturah Paice is but it is simply stunning. It is a book that I greatly enjoyed. This book deserves the success that The Hunger Games and Divergent trilogies have had, the writing is clearly to that standard. The end of the first novel leaves you hungry for more and I can not wait to finish the adventure I have started with these characters. I urge anyone who likes fast paced, exciting adventure to pick up this book, when it is released fully in March 2015.… (más)