As the Prophet grows more dangerous, Agnes realizes she must escape with Ezekiel and leave everyone else, including Beth, behind. But it isn't safe Outside, either: A viral pandemic is burning through the population at a terrifying rate. As Agnes ventures forth, a mysterious connection grows between her and the Virus. But in a world where faith, miracles, and cruelty have long been indistinguishable, will Agnes be able to choose between saving her family and saving the world? 4/5 STARSI wanted to start off by saying thank you to Kelly for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book was definitely one of the most unique i've read this year and I was excited to get my hands on it. To start off with, the book itself is gorgeous; I'm obsessed with the cover design, it was what first drew me to it. The combination of the dark colours with the red? Stunning.
This review contains spoilers for the plot and character arcs. Continue at your own risk! Our two POV characters are Agnes and Beth, sisters who have grown up in Red Creek with their younger siblings and their parents. I really liked the contrast between the two POVs too, which is rare for me but it just worked really, really well in this book, especially as the sisters went down different paths. I was rooting for them both as people and as sisters from the start. The girls are very different people, and their relationship and character arcs for me were one of the best parts of this book. My favourite character was Beth because I couldn't really identify as much with Agnes' level of faith and self sacrifice. She felt too otherworldly to me whereas Beth, with her ache for a tattoo, for freedom, for love, was a character I could really get behind and understand more. I liked Agnes too, but Beth was definitely my favourite. I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of the other siblings and of their mother too, I don't remember much about them because the focus was mostly on Agnes, Beth and Zeke. The plot was a great take on an end of the world type situation, i've not personally read anything like it before, and it was interesting to see it unfold from the POV of someone in a cult that had been expecting the end of the world. The first half of the book was definitely my favorite, when Agnes and Beth were struggling with detangling themselves from the cult in Red Creek. I felt like this is where most of their character growth took place, and where we got to know them most and the second half felt like it was a little too tidily wrapped up considering what had gone on over the course of the book. Overall, this book is a feminist, uplifting ode to a better world. I've had a lot of bad experiences and associations with religion so the last third, where things become less about Agnes breaking away from the cult and more about her and her relationship with God, were a bit uncomfortable for me to read but I could tell that the intention was of love, and caring and moving forward to changing the world to be a better place and I 100% support all of that and I'm happy that people, especially those who are religious, can find themselves in this book and see a positive figure who is religious. I recommend this to anyone who loves female lead stories about breaking free from oppressive situations, especially if you like a bit of dystopia/end of the world thrown in. The uniqueness, the plot, the characters, they're all interesting and attention grabbing, and I think the message of love is important.
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First of all thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This was a very fun read. I love the superhero trope and I love diverse fiction and this book had both in spades. We have a lovely side f/f relationship and a very sweet best friends to lovers type main relationship which from the start is the definition of cute backed up by a dash of the miscommunication trope and a heaping pile of the pining trope. There's also a hearty helping of second hand embarrassment which you tend to find a lot in these types of awkward teen main character books, but it wasn't enough to frustrate me or put me off, which can sometimes be the case. The plot itself was pretty simple, as superhero type stories tend to be, and I guessed the vast majority of the twists before they happened, but I didn't really mind that. There was one occasion where I was like 'ok just get to the reveal already!' but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I liked what Klune did with these twists, even if I saw them coming, it felt a lot more unique than what I originally thought was going to be the case (Vague review is vague hahaha). In terms of character relationships there were several good, healthy ones that shone through, and one which wasn't really healthy OR unhealthy but was very interesting (I'm trying to do a spoiler free review here haha, sorry if that's super vague). Nick's friend group is great. I liked them all, although I will say I kind of felt like a lot of the interaction between them all was very reminiscent of the interaction between the friend group in The Lightning Struck Heart and that did kind of pull me out of the story a bit. I'm not sure if it's just me, I've read the Wolfsong series and The House in the Cerulean Sea and never got that vibe before so maybe it's because these characters are so young? I'm not sure. The relationship between Nick and his dad, however, played a huge part in why I liked The Extraordinaries. Klune is very good at writing good parents who are accepting and loving, and who like to embarrass their kids almost as much as they like to protect them, and I can't get enough of this in YA books. It's refreshing and it feels good to read. Overall I recommend this book to anyone who loves superheroes, especially the kind with cheesy lines and banter. It's fun and it doesn't take itself too seriously, but there are moments of emotion in the book that made me tear up a little. It felt very wholesome, if that makes sense. I am kind of side eyeing if a sequel is planned though, because with the way it ended, (which isn't a cliffhanger precisely but definitely has elements of it), it could definitely benefit from one, and I think it would be even better than the first book because all the groundwork has been laid.
Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher and author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review! I also got a copy in my Fairyloot box in May with a very pretty pink cover and artwork on the reverse of the dust jacket! This was one of my most anticipated reads for this year so I had a lot of expectations placed on it, which is mostly my own fault, but i'm a little sad that I was a little disappointed with this book. For the first chunk it felt like it dragged too much, and I was a little bored and I didn't really feel anything for any of the characters, there was just no attachment to them for me. The second half, on the other hand was much better, I loved the twist (which I hadn't seen coming) and I liked the way it ramped up to be more action packed and interesting. I think overall the worldbuilding was also done very well, which helped with setting the story and making me want to know how it ended. As a fairytale it works very well, it follows the same basic structure and tone (though I can't pretend to be super knowledgeable about this, i'm just going off of experience in reading the odd one) and does a good job of it. The writing is pretty and descriptive and the book itself is wonderfully diverse. I love the inclusion of a f/f romance and I will forever be excited that LGBTQ book are getting hyped up and also getting included in book boxes. Overall, if the first half of the book had captured me just a little more, and if i'd felt more connection to the characters my rating would have been a 4/5 instead of a 3.5/5. But despite my own slight quarrel with the characters and the pacing, I still recommend this, especially to people who absolutely love fairytales because it very much has that vibe and we don't see all that many queer ones either, so this is a great addition to the genre. |
Reviewer26. Capricorn. INFP. Hufflepuff. Archives
October 2020
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