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m3l89's review against another edition
3.0
Antidote started strongly, but then unfortunately tailed off. The plot did progress, but I felt without any firm direction or major insights into the back story which made the plot feel rudderless.
There were times that I felt the dialogue between characters was stilted, but on the whole this was written well with believable characters. At times I felt the description could have gone into more precise detail.
Antidote wasn’t for me personally, but was a good start to a very interesting YA trilogy.
There were times that I felt the dialogue between characters was stilted, but on the whole this was written well with believable characters. At times I felt the description could have gone into more precise detail.
Antidote wasn’t for me personally, but was a good start to a very interesting YA trilogy.
athravan's review against another edition
3.0
Lena is the daughter of a scientist who died whilst working on the cure for a disease that is ravishing mankind, causing people to literally rot and die and now she's alone. She's become a bit of a recluse, but is still filled with your typical teen angst. When a cure is found, she is thrown into turmoil as a brief old-flame in the form of hunky Jared turns up, claiming to have been sent by her father to protect her and help her find the real cure. The cure that's just been declared is not what it's supposed to be at all.
He seems determined that she knows what the cure is, but her father never told her. Half way through it switches from Lena to Jared, and I found Jared's point of view more believable and easier to empathise with, when usually in YA novels I find it easier to get into the mindset of female protagonists. I just found Lena quite shallow and a little naive. Jared on the other hand I felt was a much stronger character, with a far more interesting story.
It was an interesting story with a non-stop set of action, but I think that some of the details were unnecessary, whilst other plot points weren't really explained. I felt like advanced technology was used too often as a crutch to get out of every situation, rather than real intelligence or struggle, just pow, freeze gun! Pow, wall climber! It led to a fast-paced fast read (I read the entire book in less than 2 hours) but there was no resolution and it left me with more questions than answers.
There was some romance, but it was more like instant-attraction and then romance with no real foundation to build on. I would definitely read the sequel to find out what's going on as I felt the premise was interesting, but I'd like to see more character development and less reliance on making up technology to overcome any danger.
I appreciate the publisher and Netgalley providing me with the opportunity to read and review an advanced review copy.
He seems determined that she knows what the cure is, but her father never told her. Half way through it switches from Lena to Jared, and I found Jared's point of view more believable and easier to empathise with, when usually in YA novels I find it easier to get into the mindset of female protagonists. I just found Lena quite shallow and a little naive. Jared on the other hand I felt was a much stronger character, with a far more interesting story.
It was an interesting story with a non-stop set of action, but I think that some of the details were unnecessary, whilst other plot points weren't really explained. I felt like advanced technology was used too often as a crutch to get out of every situation, rather than real intelligence or struggle, just pow, freeze gun! Pow, wall climber! It led to a fast-paced fast read (I read the entire book in less than 2 hours) but there was no resolution and it left me with more questions than answers.
There was some romance, but it was more like instant-attraction and then romance with no real foundation to build on. I would definitely read the sequel to find out what's going on as I felt the premise was interesting, but I'd like to see more character development and less reliance on making up technology to overcome any danger.
I appreciate the publisher and Netgalley providing me with the opportunity to read and review an advanced review copy.
bookcheshirecat's review against another edition
1.0
I’d like to Thank Netgallery for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for a honest Review.
I personally have to say that I did not enjoy this book at all. I chose to request it, because the setting sounded very intriguing. I’d wanted to read a book about a virus outbreak since a while now and so figured that this book was worth a shot. Sadly I found many flaws and things that I disliked about almost every aspect so that this turned out to be a 1 star read. I’ve also no interest to pick up any of the upcoming books in the series.
Wordbuilding » I expected way more from the worldbuilding and was a little disappointed, because I was searching for a dystopian virus outbreak story and rather got a twisted love story with a minor dystopian element. Personally I thought that the idea was good, but the execution wasn’t that great. There were too many plot holes and important things not explained. I might have missed some resolve about the worldbuilding and secrets because I barely skimmed over the last few pages, but whatever came (something crazy about robots and taking over the world and the disease being man made) was already too late. Whatever the truth, there had to be something to cover that up. But that didn’t happen. The disease sounded interesting, but in the beginning it all sounded so random. It started in that one village with a person and then people died. That was it. No quarantine, no idea how the virus was transmitted, no lock-down and no mention of the outside world … the US is not the center of the world. What about the rest of the world? Did the virus spread there as well? What did the government try to do to reduce the infection risk? It just didn’t make sense because there was no quarantine, people were running like nothing was wrong which is really suicidal. 6 months after the prologue there are finally some precautions like covering your face with a mask and red alerts when people showed symptoms of the sickness, to be taken away to the hospital. People being cautious etc. But before that? Nothing. It just wasn’t realistic. Her diseased mum was out in the open in a public setting with many people … and no even cared?? No quarantine, but just let her go around possibly transmitting and making everyone ill? That. Makes .no .sense. It was like there were asking to infect everyone with such a mindset. So yeah how people dealt with the sickness was just plain stupid. Not to mention that no one cared when the main character father just suddenly, unexpectedly drops dead. No police or investigation. Not to mention that not knowing about the virus was disappointing, like I get that the author wanted a mystery element, but there were just no infos and that was not cool. Also it made no sense for people to believe that someone else had a cure without knowing the origin of the sickness … honestly? No one is that stupid.
Characters » None of the characters were really convincing in the story. Mostly thy were just so stereotypical and did not have much personaity apart from that. Just look at Kaley, she was the stereotypical fashion and boy obsessed best friend and that was her only personality trait. Other people were just the “class dork” or the “boy that hid in his house”, really disappointing. I only really liked Holland she appeared when I was already skipping most of the book, due to being incredibly annoyed and bored. The worst were the two main characters. Lena is just not relatable nor do I feel anything for her. I don’t care about her or her journey. She doesn’t have real character depth. Even worse: she’s massively naive and let’s herself be pushed around. Then later she’s described as strong? I don’t get it and it doesn’t make sense to me. The whole time she was asking herself why those people were after her? Like hello??? Your father was involved with finding a cure, then got miraculously murdered and a few months later his former partner finds a cure. Sure those people are up to something (you literally noticed that their cure was bullshit) and think you pose a threat, because they think you know something about the real cue. Even I could figure that out but not Lena and it was annoying. Worse was Jared. He was in fact abusive. The author tried to go for the tough guy with a soft side, which is not problematic, what was problematic was the way he acted. All he does is demand that Lena trusts a complete stranger (especially when he promises her some proof, which never shows up) and when she doesn’t he makes fun of her. Really he constantly criticizes her, yells at her, ignores what she’s saying and physically assaults her. He literally grabs her wrist and fails to register that she winces and that she’s uncomfortable and hurting. Also he grabs her chin to force her to look at him and just uuuugh. His behavior was romanticized which is a complete No Go for me. If someone would meet him in real life he’d be called an abusive jerk, but in the book he was just portrayed as the tough guy with a soft heart that switched between mean and sickly sweet in a matter of seconds.
Romance » Like I mentioned before I despised Jared’s character and of course there’s a romance storyline between him and Lena. Now I already talked about parts of his absolutely toxic, abusive behavior towards her: yelling (to the point where she’s afraid that he’ll yell at her again), physically assaulting her (grabbing her wrist/chin), constantly bullying her (telling her that she’s a coward for being worn out and scared by all these people trying to MURDER her; always criticizing her every move) and demanding that she trust him - a complete stranger - and then getting angry when she doesn’t. Other gems include: throwing around tables and having an uncontrollable temper, ignoring when she makes a valid point that threatens his ego, treating her really badly but then getting angry when someone does not treat her like an angel and ignoring when she says that that’s her car/house etc. The problem is that all this is romanticized. Grabbing her forcefully makes Lena “feel warm with the touch”, him yelling is explained as being not problematic since she yells pack and “impresses him” and everything else is glossed over because he “just wants the best for her and saves her”. Also it’s completely fine for him to treat her in a cruel way, because it’s all forgiven the second he switches to his nice self and that goes on and on and on. (DING DONG big RED alert for abusive behavior being romanticized) All the while Lena is so “happy” around him and slowly falling for him like … what? If someone would treat me like that I’d avoid him like wildfire. One scene in particular annoyed me so so much: Jared just grabs over the table for Lena’s coffee, downs it almost completely without her saying he could have a sip … at that time he knew her for a few days. Who does that? That was just borderline rude and against any etiquette and good education. I would never EVER think about grabbing for someones food/drink without asking first, I wouldn’t even do that if I were good friends with someone, because it’s still rude. And the worst thing about that: Lena brushed it off! She finds it so “flattering” that he feels comfortable drinking from her cup??? I’m just … lost for words. Who in the heavens would think that? No sane person.
Writing Style & Plotline » The writing style was okay in this book, but I couldn’t help but think that sometimes the paragraphs weren’t done very well. There were too huge at times and should’ve been formatted a bit during editing. As I already said I was not really impressed by the writing style, it was tolerable, but sometimes sounded a bit wooden and unnatural. The plotline in theory had a good structure but in execution dragged so much. This book is not long, but I felt like it was never ending, which was incredibly unfortunate since I did not enjoy it at all. I was very near DNF’ing the book, but then skimmed through the last 50-70 pages, to at least get an overview about what was going on. I just felt like the beginning was rather non spectacularly and too rushed. One second she was preparing to dance and the next suddenly people are dead … it just felt so anti climatic and not suspenseful at all. Not to mention that Jared and Lena spent an entire night in the lab of her dad and don’t think about searching for helpful tools and information?? Throughout the whole book I did not feel the suspense when major plot points were happening. I think that may come from the writing style, because events are not described enough and instead skimmed over. Therefore I didn’t really care about the plotline. Not to mention that the middle part felt more like a love story instead of a dystopian story.
I personally have to say that I did not enjoy this book at all. I chose to request it, because the setting sounded very intriguing. I’d wanted to read a book about a virus outbreak since a while now and so figured that this book was worth a shot. Sadly I found many flaws and things that I disliked about almost every aspect so that this turned out to be a 1 star read. I’ve also no interest to pick up any of the upcoming books in the series.
Wordbuilding » I expected way more from the worldbuilding and was a little disappointed, because I was searching for a dystopian virus outbreak story and rather got a twisted love story with a minor dystopian element. Personally I thought that the idea was good, but the execution wasn’t that great. There were too many plot holes and important things not explained. I might have missed some resolve about the worldbuilding and secrets because I barely skimmed over the last few pages, but whatever came (something crazy about robots and taking over the world and the disease being man made) was already too late. Whatever the truth, there had to be something to cover that up. But that didn’t happen. The disease sounded interesting, but in the beginning it all sounded so random. It started in that one village with a person and then people died. That was it. No quarantine, no idea how the virus was transmitted, no lock-down and no mention of the outside world … the US is not the center of the world. What about the rest of the world? Did the virus spread there as well? What did the government try to do to reduce the infection risk? It just didn’t make sense because there was no quarantine, people were running like nothing was wrong which is really suicidal. 6 months after the prologue there are finally some precautions like covering your face with a mask and red alerts when people showed symptoms of the sickness, to be taken away to the hospital. People being cautious etc. But before that? Nothing. It just wasn’t realistic. Her diseased mum was out in the open in a public setting with many people … and no even cared?? No quarantine, but just let her go around possibly transmitting and making everyone ill? That. Makes .no .sense. It was like there were asking to infect everyone with such a mindset. So yeah how people dealt with the sickness was just plain stupid. Not to mention that no one cared when the main character father just suddenly, unexpectedly drops dead. No police or investigation. Not to mention that not knowing about the virus was disappointing, like I get that the author wanted a mystery element, but there were just no infos and that was not cool. Also it made no sense for people to believe that someone else had a cure without knowing the origin of the sickness … honestly? No one is that stupid.
Characters » None of the characters were really convincing in the story. Mostly thy were just so stereotypical and did not have much personaity apart from that. Just look at Kaley, she was the stereotypical fashion and boy obsessed best friend and that was her only personality trait. Other people were just the “class dork” or the “boy that hid in his house”, really disappointing. I only really liked Holland she appeared when I was already skipping most of the book, due to being incredibly annoyed and bored. The worst were the two main characters. Lena is just not relatable nor do I feel anything for her. I don’t care about her or her journey. She doesn’t have real character depth. Even worse: she’s massively naive and let’s herself be pushed around. Then later she’s described as strong? I don’t get it and it doesn’t make sense to me. The whole time she was asking herself why those people were after her? Like hello??? Your father was involved with finding a cure, then got miraculously murdered and a few months later his former partner finds a cure. Sure those people are up to something (you literally noticed that their cure was bullshit) and think you pose a threat, because they think you know something about the real cue. Even I could figure that out but not Lena and it was annoying. Worse was Jared. He was in fact abusive. The author tried to go for the tough guy with a soft side, which is not problematic, what was problematic was the way he acted. All he does is demand that Lena trusts a complete stranger (especially when he promises her some proof, which never shows up) and when she doesn’t he makes fun of her. Really he constantly criticizes her, yells at her, ignores what she’s saying and physically assaults her. He literally grabs her wrist and fails to register that she winces and that she’s uncomfortable and hurting. Also he grabs her chin to force her to look at him and just uuuugh. His behavior was romanticized which is a complete No Go for me. If someone would meet him in real life he’d be called an abusive jerk, but in the book he was just portrayed as the tough guy with a soft heart that switched between mean and sickly sweet in a matter of seconds.
Romance » Like I mentioned before I despised Jared’s character and of course there’s a romance storyline between him and Lena. Now I already talked about parts of his absolutely toxic, abusive behavior towards her: yelling (to the point where she’s afraid that he’ll yell at her again), physically assaulting her (grabbing her wrist/chin), constantly bullying her (telling her that she’s a coward for being worn out and scared by all these people trying to MURDER her; always criticizing her every move) and demanding that she trust him - a complete stranger - and then getting angry when she doesn’t. Other gems include: throwing around tables and having an uncontrollable temper, ignoring when she makes a valid point that threatens his ego, treating her really badly but then getting angry when someone does not treat her like an angel and ignoring when she says that that’s her car/house etc. The problem is that all this is romanticized. Grabbing her forcefully makes Lena “feel warm with the touch”, him yelling is explained as being not problematic since she yells pack and “impresses him” and everything else is glossed over because he “just wants the best for her and saves her”. Also it’s completely fine for him to treat her in a cruel way, because it’s all forgiven the second he switches to his nice self and that goes on and on and on. (DING DONG big RED alert for abusive behavior being romanticized) All the while Lena is so “happy” around him and slowly falling for him like … what? If someone would treat me like that I’d avoid him like wildfire. One scene in particular annoyed me so so much: Jared just grabs over the table for Lena’s coffee, downs it almost completely without her saying he could have a sip … at that time he knew her for a few days. Who does that? That was just borderline rude and against any etiquette and good education. I would never EVER think about grabbing for someones food/drink without asking first, I wouldn’t even do that if I were good friends with someone, because it’s still rude. And the worst thing about that: Lena brushed it off! She finds it so “flattering” that he feels comfortable drinking from her cup??? I’m just … lost for words. Who in the heavens would think that? No sane person.
Writing Style & Plotline » The writing style was okay in this book, but I couldn’t help but think that sometimes the paragraphs weren’t done very well. There were too huge at times and should’ve been formatted a bit during editing. As I already said I was not really impressed by the writing style, it was tolerable, but sometimes sounded a bit wooden and unnatural. The plotline in theory had a good structure but in execution dragged so much. This book is not long, but I felt like it was never ending, which was incredibly unfortunate since I did not enjoy it at all. I was very near DNF’ing the book, but then skimmed through the last 50-70 pages, to at least get an overview about what was going on. I just felt like the beginning was rather non spectacularly and too rushed. One second she was preparing to dance and the next suddenly people are dead … it just felt so anti climatic and not suspenseful at all. Not to mention that Jared and Lena spent an entire night in the lab of her dad and don’t think about searching for helpful tools and information?? Throughout the whole book I did not feel the suspense when major plot points were happening. I think that may come from the writing style, because events are not described enough and instead skimmed over. Therefore I didn’t really care about the plotline. Not to mention that the middle part felt more like a love story instead of a dystopian story.
hauntedbybooks's review
2.0
I didn't enjoy this one as much as I was hoping. The story moved at a slow pace. It just didn't find it that interesting. It just wasn't for me. I received a free e-copy of this book from netgalley for an honest review.
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