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A review by halcyone
Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
4.0
Originally posted at The Cozy Armchair.
When I received an ARC of Level 2 that I’d won in the mail, I was ecstatic! I’d followed Lenore Appelhans’ blog since before her book being picked up for publication, so I’d been hearing buzz about Level 2 from the very start and I was excited to get a chance to read it early. I still somehow managed to keep myself fairly in the dark about what to expect from Level 2, which made reading it more fun. It is a combination of several genres: contemporary and dystopian with a hint of the paranormal/angelic in there, too.
I thought the concept of the afterlife being this dystopian realm run by the Morati (who are bitter about being left out of heaven) was really clever. The Morati are the villains of the novel, but they’re fairly absent up until the very end, so it’s more the suggestion of their presence that drives the characters’ fear of them. Their motives are fairly simplistic, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them in the sequel.
The descriptions of an all-white, sterile environment; the drones stuck in these hives; individuality absolutely limited in appearance and personality - it all came together to create this very vivid image in my mind of the worst kind of afterlife. The characters’ abilities with magically handwaving things into existence were a bit too convenient for my tastes, but it does serve as a way to even the playing field between the rebels and the Morati.
The memory portions rounded out this story, giving the story a contemporary twist that I didn’t expect. A good portion of Level 2 is spent in Felicia’s memories, which was definitely a pleasant surprise because it emphasized just how sad this afterlife is, where you just mindlessly rewatch your memories and others’, and also gave us a lot of insight into Felicia’s character. It was an interesting vehicle for character development, and I really liked how we got to see her meet Neil and fall in love and make some bad decisions.
When I say bad decisions, I mean TERRIBLE. Felicia is a girl haunted by these bad decisions and Neil is the good guy that came alone to help her heal. All of Level 2 is about Felicia reviewing her relationship with Neil and being all, “Neil was so great, everyone loved him,” etc. Kinda bland, I know, so I’m hoping we get to learn more about Neil in future books to make him seem a bit more three-dimensional. However, I didn’t warm up to Felicia as much as I wanted to. Even though we get a lot of insight into her life, a lot of questions remain, especially regarding Autumn and Felicia’s life before Neil.
Julian, on the other hand, was a great ambiguous character. Despite his outwardly charming persona, I was never quite convinced because of Felicia’s incredibly strong negative reaction to him and his role in her falling out with Autumn. In short, he was a total douche and the source of several plot twists throughout the novel, some of which weren’t all that surprising. But I’m still really intrigued by him, and I know he’ll be making another appearance.
One of my major issues has to be with the ending. The pacing meandered between Felicia's memories and the resistance telling her what to do until everything suddenly peaked and then, bam, that was it?? It was just really a really abrupt escalation of events that was resolved in a way I know I didn’t understand. Then all the tension suddenly fizzled out and everything was wrapped up really easily. I’m not sure where the overarching story is going and I don't see what is propelling the story forward to a sequel besides the unanswered questions, but I know I'll want to read Level 3 anyway.
Overall, I think this was a pretty strong debut despite its issues. Level 2 had unique elements that capitalized on the popularity of certain YA tropes (dystopian, angels, etc.) to create a very interesting story.
When I received an ARC of Level 2 that I’d won in the mail, I was ecstatic! I’d followed Lenore Appelhans’ blog since before her book being picked up for publication, so I’d been hearing buzz about Level 2 from the very start and I was excited to get a chance to read it early. I still somehow managed to keep myself fairly in the dark about what to expect from Level 2, which made reading it more fun. It is a combination of several genres: contemporary and dystopian with a hint of the paranormal/angelic in there, too.
I thought the concept of the afterlife being this dystopian realm run by the Morati (who are bitter about being left out of heaven) was really clever. The Morati are the villains of the novel, but they’re fairly absent up until the very end, so it’s more the suggestion of their presence that drives the characters’ fear of them. Their motives are fairly simplistic, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them in the sequel.
The descriptions of an all-white, sterile environment; the drones stuck in these hives; individuality absolutely limited in appearance and personality - it all came together to create this very vivid image in my mind of the worst kind of afterlife. The characters’ abilities with magically handwaving things into existence were a bit too convenient for my tastes, but it does serve as a way to even the playing field between the rebels and the Morati.
The memory portions rounded out this story, giving the story a contemporary twist that I didn’t expect. A good portion of Level 2 is spent in Felicia’s memories, which was definitely a pleasant surprise because it emphasized just how sad this afterlife is, where you just mindlessly rewatch your memories and others’, and also gave us a lot of insight into Felicia’s character. It was an interesting vehicle for character development, and I really liked how we got to see her meet Neil and fall in love and make some bad decisions.
When I say bad decisions, I mean TERRIBLE. Felicia is a girl haunted by these bad decisions and Neil is the good guy that came alone to help her heal. All of Level 2 is about Felicia reviewing her relationship with Neil and being all, “Neil was so great, everyone loved him,” etc. Kinda bland, I know, so I’m hoping we get to learn more about Neil in future books to make him seem a bit more three-dimensional. However, I didn’t warm up to Felicia as much as I wanted to. Even though we get a lot of insight into her life, a lot of questions remain, especially regarding Autumn and Felicia’s life before Neil.
Julian, on the other hand, was a great ambiguous character. Despite his outwardly charming persona, I was never quite convinced because of Felicia’s incredibly strong negative reaction to him and his role in her falling out with Autumn. In short, he was a total douche and the source of several plot twists throughout the novel, some of which weren’t all that surprising. But I’m still really intrigued by him, and I know he’ll be making another appearance.
One of my major issues has to be with the ending. The pacing meandered between Felicia's memories and the resistance telling her what to do until everything suddenly peaked and then, bam, that was it?? It was just really a really abrupt escalation of events that was resolved in a way I know I didn’t understand. Then all the tension suddenly fizzled out and everything was wrapped up really easily. I’m not sure where the overarching story is going and I don't see what is propelling the story forward to a sequel besides the unanswered questions, but I know I'll want to read Level 3 anyway.
Overall, I think this was a pretty strong debut despite its issues. Level 2 had unique elements that capitalized on the popularity of certain YA tropes (dystopian, angels, etc.) to create a very interesting story.