Patrick Cave

Mira starts to piece together the true implications of her existence when she discovers that she is being 'watched' by a close friend. As the book unfolds, you follow Mira on her journey through a world in crisis and learn what part she plays in a far-reaching conspiracy.

Patrick Cave does an excellent job crafting this sci-fi gem. The writing exceeds expectations and will carry you through the slow-burn beginning as you realize with Mira that things are not what they seem. This book and its show more sequel/prequel is more cerebral than the action-packed yet superficial Hunger Games trilogy. show less

This novel is richly complex, particularly for a young adult novel. There aren't any tidy endings and there is a fair dose of brutality. There is a lot going on in this novel and some of it left me wondering even at the end. What exactly was going on? who was doing what? Some of the questions are answered and others are left hanging. Still, the message of rising to the best of who you are, meeting the challenge, is told with great clarity.

Maybe this book just had bad timing for me.
I've read quite a few books with the same concept. I think they set a standard (or maybe once you've read one, you've read them all concept?!) - but I enjoyed the first few books about it better.

This one just seemed like a never ending drama - although the drama never got interesting enough to hold me. I really liked the main character, Mira and Kay. I would have enjoyed it more had their personalities and interactions been more flushed out. show more Instead, it seemed in many many areas that things just drug out. That we could go whole chapters with very little other than food gathering happening. It just lost my interest.
I wasn't invested with any of the characters and the plot just seemed to spread out to hold me. show less

I really really wanted to like this book but it was sooo confusing. I was totally lost through most of it. The ending got a lot better but with 500+ pages a few good chapters made the book hard to rate above a 2 star for me. This book would have been awesome if the author had taken some time to explain a few things in the first couple of chapters. I realize the intention was to build interest and suspense. But this is a long book and with that much reading, at least for me,I like a little show more taste of what's cooking. I would like to know how things turn out but,uugghh, I dunno, I'm not sure I could endure the next book in the series. So for right now, based off this book, the first in this series, I can't give a recommend. show less