Aberrant by Ruth SilverMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I was torn between giving this one two or three stars, so the rating is probably closer to a 2.5. And there were times when I was reading it where I really liked it, and then other times when I got frustrated with it. Aberrant felt like it was full of great ideas, but its strength was its downfall as well--it just had too many ideas going on in it. We see plenty of devices used in other Dystopians: A day of choosing/selection/assignment (Divergent, The Giver), a society with set matched partners (Matched), worldwide fertility problems, with only select people being chosen to have children, a "testing"/trial type situation (Hunger Games), and mental powers/abilities on top of all that. All in one book! I felt like I was hopping from dystopian to dystopian, with very rough transitions. And Olivia was so good at this hopping, that it was almost annoying. It seemed like every time she was going to have to get through a serious situation, or deal with some intense drama, she would manage to escape it in the nick of time. She hardly ever saw action, because she was always running from it.
I was interested in the individual places she went to, but I felt like she just didn't deal with them. When imprisoned at home, she's quickly rescued (though in a strangely inefficient method, considering their technology). At her next places, she was just given some news she strongly disliked when an attacked forced her and her love interest to flee (a car was conveniently empty and waiting for them to take). Their third destination she finally has to deal with some hardship, but it's abbreviated hardship. I just wanted more all over--I felt like this book in itself could have been expanded into three books.
So, good in one sense--I was interested enough that I wanted to read more. But bad in another sense--I kept being frustrated with where the writing was taking me. Oh well, like I said, I'm still interested enough to read the next books. I just hope the next ones take us back to some of the first locations so she has to deal with some of the problems she left behind.
This digital copy of Aberrant was given to me by NetGalley & Patchwork Press in exchange for an honest review.
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