This is a little atypical in that (1) I’m going to review an entire series in one post and (2) I have not yet completed the series. You will see why below…
Publisher’s summary (from Audible):
An unforgettable tale brimming with suspense, mystery and romance – The Girl Who Dared to Think will thrill fans of The Gender Game, Divergent, and The Hunger Games….
How do you fight an enemy when they’re inside your mind?
A gargantuan glass-walled tower looms over a deadly wilderness. They say it’s all that’s left.
The Tower’s survival is humanity’s survival, and each must serve it faithfully….
Twenty-year-old Liana Castell must be careful what she thinks. Her life is defined by the number on her wristband – a rating out of 10 awarded based on her usefulness and loyalty to the Tower, and monitored by a device in her skull. A device that reports forbidden thoughts.
Liana is currently a four, the lowest possible acceptable score, and despite her parents’ perfect scores of 10, she struggles to increase it. Rebellious ideas come all too easily, and resentfulness seems part of her being. She is an overseer-in-training, but her future will be dark if she cannot raise her worth….
Threes require drug treatment.
Twos are isolated.
Ones disappear.
When Liana’s worst nightmare comes to pass and she drops to a three, desperation spurs her down a path few dare to tread. A chance encounter with a cocky young man whose shockingly dissident attitude toward the Tower couldn’t possibly have earned him the perfect “10” on his wrist, sets her on a trail to save herself – even at the risk of dropping lower.
Stalking the young man seemed like a simple enough task, but after events take an unexpected twist, Liana finds herself taking a treacherous dive into the darkest depths of the Tower…and the decades’ old secrets buried within.
In a society where free thinking can make you a criminal, one girl dares to try….
First impression:
Let me just make clear that I despise when authors create a series for the sake of making money. It’s very obvious when it’s being done because they include a lot of filler to make each novel stand on its own. This series is perhaps one of the worst offenders.
Post-apoctolyptic dystopian is hands-down my favorite genre. It just so happens that many of these tend to also be young adult (YA) novels, which is totally fine with me. I always enjoy learning about author’s different ideas of how a society would restructure itself following mass destruction/epidemic/etc. This novel seemed to be particularly interesting in its concept in that it blended humanity with artificial intelligence (AI). Yes, it’s been done in countless movies and novels, but I hadn’t seen much of it in YA novels so I found it refreshing.
Liana, the main character, is actually older than many of the characters in YA novels at 19 and, on the surface, seems to be more mature than the characters I’m used to reading about. This novel is not really set in a school environment like many of the YA novels, but in a work environment. She presents herself as a logical and grounded young woman that is attempting to operate within the bounds of a society full of complacent people. The supporting characters seem to complement her well at the start of the novel, making the whole plot more believable.
Overall review:
The first novel in the series was pretty good. I am definitely an origin story person and so I love hearing about the setting and the introduction of the characters. Because of this, I didn’t notice the red flags until I progressed in the series.
I was actually in the middle of book six (of seven) when I not only decided to stop the series, but to request ALL of my credits be returned. This is a first for me, but I was so fed up with the writer and the obvious filler she inserted into the story that I felt I’d been cheated of my previous credits. In no way should this story extend beyond two novels. Even a trilogy would be a stretch.
Here are my primary complaints:
The author manufactures conflict that turns into an issue out of proportion to its actual severity. I’m wondering if this is a way to force continuous conflict within the story. It’s really not needed because it almost becomes hard to keep up with all of the main character’s problems. It would be nice to consolidate the storyline and focus on developing the character of the main antagonist, whose identity was not clear mid-way through book six.
What became intolerable, and is one of the main reasons I discontinued the series, was the extensive and excessive inner dialogue. Here is the general structure of dialogue in the book:
1) Liana has one line of dialogue with another character. That character responds.
2) Liana thinks for two pages about what her feelings are and what she wants to say to the person.
3) Liana summarizes everything she just thought into one line of dialogue.
4) Repeat.
Clearly if she could summarize her thoughts and feelings into one line of dialogue, there was no need to write down her extensive and repetitive thought process. This does not develop character, and is rather an obvious way of filling space so that the novel can be increased in length.
** POTENTIAL SPOILER**
I actually don’t think this is too much of a spoiler. Liana’s group of friends have voted to have her as the leader despite her original protests. However, she acts as a dictator. Her group is comprised of adults, albeit young adults. It is simply not believable that, given the strong personalities that surround her, they would blindly follow her instructions. For example, stopping an argument between significant others because it poses a “threat” to group unity is… a bit much
Lastly, there is a “love triangle” (if you can call it that) that develops in this story, as we see in many novels. The proposed resolution occurs halfway through book six…you see where I’m going here? It was absolutely one of the most absurd things I’d ever read. And I’ve read a lot. This was the last straw for me. I won’t say any more about that.
Summary:
It’s unfortunate that I spent six credits on this series, but I was not at all ashamed to request them all back. At this point, I’m not even sure I care to hear the resolution of the story , although it could probably be summed up in a paragraph. I have heard that Bella’s break-out novel, The Gender Game, is a great read (listen) but I’m reluctant to listen to more from this author. This was a great idea for a novel, but its repetitiveness and non-believable character interactions make this a bomb for me. I personally cannot recommend this series.
**As a side note, I didn’t comment on Kristen Leigh’s narration of the novel because it did not stand out in a good or bad way. The story itself was too distracting.