Branded, A Dystopian Set in a Prison World

Branded by Abi Ketner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is one of those boooks that, while I enjoyed reading it, I couldn't help but noticed inconsistencies, plot development oddities, and other small things I just didn't. So if I was rating it just based on general concept and how fast I read it, I'd probably give it five stars. But the things that bothered me just kept adding up...

Probably the first thing that I thought was a little odd was that everyone in the Hole was obsessed with Lexi. Literally. Her guard was beating people off her transport truck because not only did she have the blue brand of Lust, but she was apparently just that beautiful. That sort of annoyed me. I was also bothered by the fact that "prostitute" was a job in a society where that was obviously a huge crime. I get that they were already in the Hole, and that they might have turned a blind eye to any of this happening because these people were "getting what they deserved" but to actually force someone to continue to 'sin'? Didn't really make sense to me. There's also a lot of internal monologue about the things she's learning and discovering about herself that seemed a little forced.

Then there's Cole. Hot hero of the story, super obvious love interest. The foreshadowing is very heavyhanded with this. But...Cole is so quick to fall in love with Lexi, and once he does, his personality seems to totally change. Things he insisted on at the beginning don't seem to matter much anymore, and he doesn't struggle very long against his feelings. Oh well, maybe he's just a weaker man than I initially thought.

Lastly, the "revolution," or the second part of the book. Lexi doesn't put up much of a fight about some things because she wants to fight, which doesn't make much sense to me. Then she goes from shrinking, frightened girl to one of the best fighters? A little bit of a Mary Sue there. The action scenes were confusing in this part of the book and over with quickly. Lexi thinks she's fought for herself but in reality, she's sort of let everyone else handle the dirty work for her. Maybe I just didn't like Lexi much, and that's why she frustrated me.

I don't know, this book was obviously not my favorite, but despite all the nitpicking, it was still a decent read. I'd probably be interested in reading the sequel, which is why I gave it three stars. I just hope Lexi becomes a little more practical.

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