K C Finn

[English translation below]

Sono così felice di aver scoperto questo libro! Ultimamente trovare distopici interessanti è difficile, quindi Legion Lost è stata una piacevole sorpresa.

Guerra. Segreti. Ribellioni. Addii. Vendetta.
Dopo innumerevoli guerre il mondo è governato dal Sistema, che aiuta solo i più potenti e arruola i ragazzi senza un luogo dove rifugiarsi nella Legione per trasformarli in soldati. Ma non tutti si sono sottomessi: c'è chi vive nel sottosuolo al sicuro dalla show more stretta del potere o chi, come gli Highlanders, vive da ribelle aspettando il momento giusto per contrattaccare.
Ciò che mi ha colpito oltre l'ambientazione e le descrizioni sono stati sicuramente i personaggi: ognuno di essi nasconde dei segreti che vengono svelati nei momenti più inaspettati, ed è impossibile basarsi solo sulle apparenze.
E' anche incredibile vedere come cambia la protagonista nel corso della storia, dimostrando gli effetti che la guerra fa sulle persone. Alla fine mi ha ricordato per un istante Katniss Everdeen perché entrambe sono emblema della rivoluzione, ma per il resto sono eroine molto diverse.
Che dire poi dei colpi di scena? Mi hanno fatta rimanere a bocca aperta parecchie volte! Senza contare la fantastica coppia slash che in realtà slash non è composta da Raja e Stirling, sono adorabili!Il finale ricco d'azione e di drammaticità mi ha fatto desiderare ardentemente di aver già il secondo volume tra le mani, odio non sapere cos'è successo ai personaggi che amo!

----------------------------------------------------

(Sorry for the possibile errors, but I'm not English)
I'm so happy for this new discovery! Lately it has been quite hard finding interesting dystopian books, this is why Legion Lost is a delightful surprise.

War. Secrets. Rebellions. Farewells. Revenge.
After many wars the world is ruled by the System, that helps only powerful people and recruits teenagers whithout a shelter to transform them into soldiers. However, not everybody has submittet: somebody lives in the Underground, others like the Highlanders are rebels waiting for the right moment to counterattack.
What impressed me aside from the setting and the descriptions are the characters: each one has got secrets which are revealed in the most unexpected moments, and you can't rely on the appereances.
It's also incredible seeing how the main character changes during the story, showing how war affects people. At the end she reminded me of Katniss Everdeen because both of them are symbols of a revolution, but they are different kinds of heroines.
What can I say about the coups de théatre? I remained without words! Not to mention the adorable slash couple that actually it isn't slash formed by Stirling and Raja!The ending full of action and drama made me wish having the second book in my hands right away!
I recommend it to all the fans of the genre. show less

I have a high interest in war books--especially when it comes to anything related to WWII.

K.C. Finn's The Mind's Eye does a great job of going back and forth between both being a war story and focusing on the life of a young girl and her personal (fictional) story.

I didn't know how well I would become immersed in a young adult book considering I hadn't read one in a while, but overall, I really enjoyed myself and the book apart from a few hiccups here and there.

Kit, the main character of the show more story, has both a disability (juvenile arthritis), and psychic powers. So it's no surprise that I fell in love with her right away. I mean, someone I can finally relate to AND who has some cool attributes? Sign me up!

I definitely sympathized with Kit and how much pain she was constantly in. I easily felt anger towards her doctor, Bickerstaff. How he treated her with such disdain took me back to memories of doctors of my past. UGH!
Kit's feelings of being a huge burden on everyone because of her disability was like a smack in the face for me. Whether you have a physical or mental disability, you know what it's like to be helpless and feel like you're being a burden--even if you're really not. It's a struggle and I completely understood Kit's emotions. The author did a great job of describing what the main character was going through.

As for Kit's psychic powers, they definitely took over the story, which was nice because then the book didn't focus mainly on Kit's disability. Being able to see through the eyes of Kit's..."target"...was interesting and I was surprised that I never became confused when Kit was in the head of someone else. Everything was written in a way that was easily understood.

Some of the minor characters--even if you didn't get in their heads from Kit's perspective--were easy to care about. This isn't always something a writer achieves, and I really appreciated that with Finn. Sometimes I don't even feel for the main character in a story! But I remembered and had feelings for almost every single character in this book.

Speaking of characters...
I enjoyed the romance between the two main characters. But I also didn't.
It was just overplayed a bit. You knew what was going to happen, basically, and I didn't like that. I wish there had been more ZING to what they experienced, although what they went through together at the beginning was definitely exciting! The rest of the book had a lot of great twists and turns; it was a bit disappointing to see the romantic sub-plot go a bit flat.

I suffer from a chronic autoimmune disorder.
Or...chronic Lyme disease.
So when I read that the author, K.C. Finn, had M.E./CFS, it struck a chord with me and made the book even more special. I realized Finn could lend a piece of herself towards the main character. Yes, Kit had a severe disability in the book, and yes it plays a major part, and yes it is discussed heavily. But that's not the part she plays. She's not just the token disabled kid. She's so much more, and I love that.

(I did have a weird feeling about the ending, but that's neither here nor there in this review.)

So, cheers! Praise, praise, praise! Go read, read, read! show less

I just finished reading this book in one sitting because it was just that good. That a disabled girl in chronic pain is the star of the story is particularly compelling as characters like that are rarely lead protagonists. And learning more about WW2 was much more interesting than I imagined. I wasn't a huge fan of Kit's special psychic gift which drove key aspects of the plot, but it didn't matter as the story and characters were completely engrossing to me regardless.

This was my first horror book and I wasn't disappointed. K.C. Finn pulled me into a world of chaos immediately. Her writing was intense and spot on when she described the creatures she called Skins. I cringed with discussed when the monsters cornered her in the hospital. I felt awful for her when she had to fight against her friend. When she witnessed her mother's transformation. The moment she finally finds sanctuary, I breathed a sigh of relief.