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eloquentmydear's review
4.0
Thank you to Less Than Three Press and NetGalley for giving me free access to this book in exchange for an honest review.
Recommendations:
I would recommend this book to teenagers and young adults who enjoy fantasy horror or adventure, or those who simply enjoy a short, contained story which resolves itself. I'm not usually a fan of horror, fantasy or adventure, but being LGBT+ was drawn to this, and really enjoyed reading it in one sitting.
If you are not a fan of 'teen fiction' style writing, this is a good book for you. I personally cannot stand John Green-esque teen fiction, so a book with young protagonists written in the style of an adult-oriented novel is a refreshing and welcomed change.
This book would also be suitable for older adults who do not struggle to associate with younger characters. However, if you don't enjoy metaphors and abstract creative writing, this may not be a good choice for you, as much of the story is interspersed with passages of nightmares, dream-like flashbacks, panic attacks described metaphorically and Hanna's imagination going a bit wild.
Review:
Thrown in at the deep end, this book begins with the protagonist, Hanna, assisting her best friend, Mya, in an escape attempt from the Future Unity and Repopulation Initiative - The FURI, though they just call it the Institute. It isn't their first attempt to flee the prison-like compound. In addition to guards, Hanna faces chronic claustrophobia, as well as an intense fear of the Howlers - and the darkness their screams awaken in her.
Much mystery surrounds the Institute, and the 'condition' the inmates are afflicted with. They are given in-depth monthly examinations, but nobody knows what they're looking for, and the doctors are, at best, cold (aside from Dr Nadar). All the inmates know is that more and more are wheeled off to Intensive Care, which is heavily guarded, never to return. And from within IC comes the howling.
Hanna and Mya are side-by-side for pretty much the entire story, and are the only close companions they each have. Their ebb-and-flow is wonderful. As one is overrun by the inner fury, the other centres and calms her. Their devoted bond is shown even in their disagreements, and I was never worried that they were going to turn on each other. This isn't, perhaps, something that everyone would enjoy, but having endured much torture of LGBT+ relationships in other media, it was appealing to me that they stuck together without a period of tension. For such a short book, I can't say that their romantic relationship is 'slow burn', but explicit romantic development doesn't occur until more than halfway through, and is slim in content. However, as the story is told from Hanna's perspective, it is full of adoration for Mya. The whole book through, it's clear that Hanna has serious heart-eyes going on, which was really enjoyable, and by the end the nature of their relationship is not open to a different interpretation.
In terms of the characters as individuals, I found Hanna reasonably interesting. Her anxiety was very well-written, and her experience of the fury was interesting, though a little cliché, which I'm fine with. However, I feel her personality and backstory could've been developed a little more. She has spent a decade in the Institute, but she must've had hobbies and interests before then which would flesh her out a little more. Mya similarly is not very fleshed out, but we're told she doesn't like to talk about her life before the Institute. We're given a little about Hanna's family, but it didn't really spring any emotion in me as I felt it was underexplored. To me, there is not much more than a glimpse at the relationship she and her parents had, and I didn't feel at any point as though she missed them at all.
The character I found most interesting was actually Dr Nadar, who battles with her will to help people and her fear of the URI's power.
Overall writing was pretty good, though I sometimes got lost when trying to track where the characters were around the Institute, particularly during their escape. I was also a little confused by the scenes which took place in Dr Nadar's house - the biology of 'spreading the condition' lost me a bit, and I didn't really have a clue what to visualise in the post-fight scene. However, there was generally a lot of depth and variation in descriptors, which kept the pace up well. Only having a few key characters named helped with clarity and focus in the narrative, and brought key characters closer together, I feel.
Something else I really liked about this book was that all of the big unanswered questions - regarding the Institute, Dr Nadar, the Calamity, etc - were answered by the end, which could leave the book as a standalone that I'd be happy with, but could easily be turned into a series by exploring the backstories and relationships of the protagonists while they survive the aftermath of their escape.
Recommendations:
I would recommend this book to teenagers and young adults who enjoy fantasy horror or adventure, or those who simply enjoy a short, contained story which resolves itself. I'm not usually a fan of horror, fantasy or adventure, but being LGBT+ was drawn to this, and really enjoyed reading it in one sitting.
If you are not a fan of 'teen fiction' style writing, this is a good book for you. I personally cannot stand John Green-esque teen fiction, so a book with young protagonists written in the style of an adult-oriented novel is a refreshing and welcomed change.
This book would also be suitable for older adults who do not struggle to associate with younger characters. However, if you don't enjoy metaphors and abstract creative writing, this may not be a good choice for you, as much of the story is interspersed with passages of nightmares, dream-like flashbacks, panic attacks described metaphorically and Hanna's imagination going a bit wild.
Review:
Thrown in at the deep end, this book begins with the protagonist, Hanna, assisting her best friend, Mya, in an escape attempt from the Future Unity and Repopulation Initiative - The FURI, though they just call it the Institute. It isn't their first attempt to flee the prison-like compound. In addition to guards, Hanna faces chronic claustrophobia, as well as an intense fear of the Howlers - and the darkness their screams awaken in her.
Much mystery surrounds the Institute, and the 'condition' the inmates are afflicted with. They are given in-depth monthly examinations, but nobody knows what they're looking for, and the doctors are, at best, cold (aside from Dr Nadar). All the inmates know is that more and more are wheeled off to Intensive Care, which is heavily guarded, never to return. And from within IC comes the howling.
Hanna and Mya are side-by-side for pretty much the entire story, and are the only close companions they each have. Their ebb-and-flow is wonderful. As one is overrun by the inner fury, the other centres and calms her. Their devoted bond is shown even in their disagreements, and I was never worried that they were going to turn on each other. This isn't, perhaps, something that everyone would enjoy, but having endured much torture of LGBT+ relationships in other media, it was appealing to me that they stuck together without a period of tension. For such a short book, I can't say that their romantic relationship is 'slow burn', but explicit romantic development doesn't occur until more than halfway through, and is slim in content. However, as the story is told from Hanna's perspective, it is full of adoration for Mya. The whole book through, it's clear that Hanna has serious heart-eyes going on, which was really enjoyable, and by the end the nature of their relationship is not open to a different interpretation.
In terms of the characters as individuals, I found Hanna reasonably interesting. Her anxiety was very well-written, and her experience of the fury was interesting, though a little cliché, which I'm fine with. However, I feel her personality and backstory could've been developed a little more. She has spent a decade in the Institute, but she must've had hobbies and interests before then which would flesh her out a little more. Mya similarly is not very fleshed out, but we're told she doesn't like to talk about her life before the Institute. We're given a little about Hanna's family, but it didn't really spring any emotion in me as I felt it was underexplored. To me, there is not much more than a glimpse at the relationship she and her parents had, and I didn't feel at any point as though she missed them at all.
The character I found most interesting was actually Dr Nadar, who battles with her will to help people and her fear of the URI's power.
Overall writing was pretty good, though I sometimes got lost when trying to track where the characters were around the Institute, particularly during their escape. I was also a little confused by the scenes which took place in Dr Nadar's house - the biology of 'spreading the condition' lost me a bit, and I didn't really have a clue what to visualise in the post-fight scene. However, there was generally a lot of depth and variation in descriptors, which kept the pace up well. Only having a few key characters named helped with clarity and focus in the narrative, and brought key characters closer together, I feel.
Something else I really liked about this book was that all of the big unanswered questions - regarding the Institute, Dr Nadar, the Calamity, etc - were answered by the end, which could leave the book as a standalone that I'd be happy with, but could easily be turned into a series by exploring the backstories and relationships of the protagonists while they survive the aftermath of their escape.
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