Author: Marie Lu
Series: Skyhunter #1
Genre: Sci-Fi/Dystopia
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: September 29th, 2020
Edition: Kindle Edition, 384 pages
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Book Depository | Bookshop | Powell's
Synopsis:
A broken world.
An overwhelming evil.
A team of warriors ready to strike back.
Talin is a Striker, a member of an elite fighting force that stands as the last defense for the only free nation in the world: Mara.
A refugee, Talin knows firsthand the horrors of the Federation, a world-dominating war machine responsible for destroying nation after nation with its terrifying army of mutant beasts known only as Ghosts.
But when a mysterious prisoner is brought from the front to Mara's capital, Talin senses there’s more to him than meets the eye. Is he a spy from the Federation? What secrets is he hiding?
Only one thing is clear: Talin is ready to fight to the death alongside her fellow Strikers for the only homeland she has left . . . with or without the boy who might just be the weapon to save—or destroy—them all.
*****
Where to start with this review. I liked it well enough, but there were parts that I wished had delved deeper and explored more. There are elements of the worldbuilding that I felt were glossed over a little. There is a level of suspension belief that's required when it comes to Dystopian, especially when it comes to YA dystopian. But sometimes it's hard to, and at times it was really hard to suspend my belief things in this book. There's just a lot of small things that I would have liked more explanation for. The MC often expresses how she trained as a Striker "from the age of 12", but she's barely 16... and I know when you're a kid 4 years feels like a long time, but it doesn't seem like the training process is very long because she's been a "full striker" for a while. And I think elements of this book would make more sense had she still been in training and not all the top fighters are between 15-20. If the job is that dangerous and the turn out for soldiers is that frequent, maybe train people longer and not be picky about who wants to train? A big deal is made that Talin isn't Maran, but if their fighters die so frequently that they're all teenagers, and so few make it to adulthood... I don't know, just don't be picky or a dick about it?
All that aside, I did like the characters. Talin, while there wasn't much I could relate to with her character, I really liked her. Her motivations were believable and understandable. Red, he was okay. His character was a little harder to figure out, and I didn't find him very interesting for most of the book. But I did like how their bond developed in a realistic way with trust, and that love was never forced. I hope that it remains a platonic relationship. I don't think a romance would fit in very well in my opinion. Though, I could be wrong. Marie Lu is good at writing romance, even though I didn't like the one in Warcross, but that's a different story.
Something else I struggled with, was picturing any of the world. I can't picture what the "ghosts" look like, or any of the architecture. What the lay of the land looks like beyond there being a forest... but I don't know what the trees look like, is it a wetland area, dry? Rainforest? Redwoods/Pine trees? I have no idea. I honestly don't know if I care enough to read the sequel, even though I didn't hate this book. I just have so many other books that I'm more interested in reading, that the sequel is really far down on my list.
Marie Lu is still one of my favorite authors, I just don't know if this is a book for me. This review sounds really negative when it just left me feeling 'meh'.
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