Select (Book 1 of The Select)

Thank you to NetGalley, Charlesbridge, Charlesbridge Teen, and Marit Weisenberg for this Granted Wish advanced preview copy of Select for an honest review --




I was blown away to recieve this granted wish ARC, because the art and the synopsis grabbed me from the first time I saw it available/coming soon for publication. I couldn't help feeling the tug of love, also, being a Texas, that it mentions Austin right from the get go.

While the beginning of Select is a little slow, I feel it takes its time to slowly pull you into understanding the world. How Julia's world is constructed and why it's terrible to fall from such a high height. The way the cultish, but perfect life of hers begins to slowly peel back as Julia's view point widens to show more the world she was dropped in, we begin to feel the eerie dangers present that were oblivious overlooked or missed in the earlier portions of Julia's life.

I like that the love story in this novel wasn't instantly everything for both of the characters. That, they like we coming into the novel, are a slow and gradual gravity toward each other. Julia because she's displaced, to this place that is supposed to cow her rebellion, and John because of the novelty of Julia, who she is, where she comes from, what she can do.

I love all the twists and turns of the secrets of the book, and I'm incredibly hesitant about how to describe them, as no one should be spoiled on getting them just the way we all did as early readers. The depths of the machine behind everything is broad and you'll find yourself gasping, horrified, disliking characters you might have liked earlier, cheering for things that come to pass the way they have to by the end.

This book was a fast, hard, love, that demanded you read it in every free second you had, and I will be picking up a copy as soon as it is available! show less

What a strange and convoluted book this was!
 
I suppose I expected it to be a bit more fantastical, a bit more whimsical, a bit more sci-fi, and a lot more exciting, but... it wasn't. I started and stopped it many times because I kept getting bored.
 
I really just failed to understand a conflict early on between Julia and her father that ends up with her going to public school. I could not buy that premise and had a lot of negative feelings and questions as to why this was happening.
 
None of these characters felt particularly well developed to me. There was potential, but from a strange sibling relationship to a forced family dynamic to an almost suicidal friendgroup, all of the connections in this seemed very artificial and unreal. show more And don't get me started on the John/Julia thing--there was zero substance there. I couldn't get involved.
 
I like the idea of highly-evolved humans, but again, the backstory wasn't developed here and the future story wasn't really either. I think I'd be far more interested in reading about a character set in the future of these people. There was potential for a lot of commentary on the environment and on society, but these were all overlooked. It ultimately came off as having a cult-like feel and I couldn't really root for anyone.
 
There are far more exciting and engaging YA books upcoming that deal with important themes, and I'm not too fond of this one as a stand in for those.
 
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.beckiebookworm.com



🌟🌟🌟1/2 Stars
Select was such a delightful read. I was so happy to have wished for this on NetGalley and to have that wish granted was fabulous.
So Select is the first book in a new Young Adult paranormal series.
It revolves around Julia Jaynes who Comes from a race of highly-evolved humans,
This group hide in plain sight amongst the general populace who they refer to as outsiders.
Julia seems to have it all, The perfect family and lifestyle at least this is what it appears outwardly to others.
After an incident that gets this elite family group noticed Jayne is made an example of and sent to the local public high school with the outsiders and ordered to lie low, suppress and show more also tamp down her emerging extraordinary abilities.
Here she re-meets John Ford and the two overtime become friendly.
Now there is a lot more to this Young Adult debut novel than meets the eye, you need to look deeper beneath the layers and unravel the perfect illusion that is Julia's life.
Most of the characters that claim to care for our young Julia are toxic to her.
Her father Novak is a big old douche, manipulative, cold and cruel but with a strange ability that compels others to gravitate towards him, giving him their faith and trust, in fact, It seems to have at times an almost cultish element to some of the family's interactions.
Victoria her step-mother is a first class bitch, despite practically raising Julia from the age of Two she treats her like a second-class citizen, putting her own daughter Liv over Julia in everything.
Then there's the younger sister Liv herself, self-centred, over-entitled, little princess, I really don't like her and really wish Julia would stop making excuses for the spoilt little madam.
The bestie Angus, well I was divided in my opinion of him I'm going to see how he behaves in future as I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of him.
I have my eye on you boyo.
Oh, and Angus and the Lost Boys dropped poor Julia like a bad disease when she was on the out and these are meant to be her friends.
So where was I, Oh yes Julia and Ford, well these two start a fledgeling relationship filled with the usual teenage angst.
I will also say that I wasn't overly fond of the methods employed by Julia initially of reading John's mind, but gave her a temporary free pass because she's young and still learning.
In herself, Julia was a show of extremes so grown up in some ways and then so irritatingly naive and selfish in others, I myself think her privileged upbringing played a big part in shaping Julia.
And am hoping she will evolve so much more going forward.
As for John himself well he seems a very solid lad, A touch rebellious but he definitely seems to have his head screwed on right, he comes across as more grounded than Julia and more adult also.
As you can imagine this tale is not plain sailing and when its time to get out of dodge, things around Julia start to collapse like a pack of cards, decisions need making and secrets are finally revealed and on this note, I will leave it.
Select leaves us with more questions than answers.
it sets itself up for the next in this series nicely, which I will definitely be reading as I now feel so invested in this story and its many diverse characters.
This may be a Young Adult Novel but I would definitely recommend to all ages it kept my attention and I'm forty-four.
It's well written and a definite page turner, pulling the reader in.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with a free arc of Select by Marit Wiesenberg, it was lovely of you to grant my wish.
This is my own personal unbiased opinion.



Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/ show less

Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.beckiebookworm.com



🌟🌟🌟1/2 Stars
Select was such a delightful read. I was so happy to have wished for this on NetGalley and to have that wish granted was fabulous.
So Select is the first book in a new Young Adult paranormal series.
It revolves around Julia Jaynes who Comes from a race of highly-evolved humans,
This group hide in plain sight amongst the general populace who they refer to as outsiders.
Julia seems to have it all, The perfect family and lifestyle at least this is what it appears outwardly to others.
After an incident that gets this elite family group noticed Jayne is made an example of and sent to the local public high school with the outsiders and ordered to lie low, suppress and show more also tamp down her emerging extraordinary abilities.
Here she re-meets John Ford and the two overtime become friendly.
Now there is a lot more to this Young Adult debut novel than meets the eye, you need to look deeper beneath the layers and unravel the perfect illusion that is Julia's life.
Most of the characters that claim to care for our young Julia are toxic to her.
Her father Novak is a big old douche, manipulative, cold and cruel but with a strange ability that compels others to gravitate towards him, giving him their faith and trust, in fact, It seems to have at times an almost cultish element to some of the family's interactions.
Victoria her step-mother is a first class bitch, despite practically raising Julia from the age of Two she treats her like a second-class citizen, putting her own daughter Liv over Julia in everything.
Then there's the younger sister Liv herself, self-centred, over-entitled, little princess, I really don't like her and really wish Julia would stop making excuses for the spoilt little madam.
The bestie Angus, well I was divided in my opinion of him I'm going to see how he behaves in future as I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the last of him.
I have my eye on you boyo.
Oh, and Angus and the Lost Boys dropped poor Julia like a bad disease when she was on the out and these are meant to be her friends.
So where was I, Oh yes Julia and Ford, well these two start a fledgeling relationship filled with the usual teenage angst.
I will also say that I wasn't overly fond of the methods employed by Julia initially of reading John's mind, but gave her a temporary free pass because she's young and still learning.
In herself, Julia was a show of extremes so grown up in some ways and then so irritatingly naive and selfish in others, I myself think her privileged upbringing played a big part in shaping Julia.
And am hoping she will evolve so much more going forward.
As for John himself well he seems a very solid lad, A touch rebellious but he definitely seems to have his head screwed on right, he comes across as more grounded than Julia and more adult also.
As you can imagine this tale is not plain sailing and when its time to get out of dodge, things around Julia start to collapse like a pack of cards, decisions need making and secrets are finally revealed and on this note, I will leave it.
Select leaves us with more questions than answers.
it sets itself up for the next in this series nicely, which I will definitely be reading as I now feel so invested in this story and its many diverse characters.
This may be a Young Adult Novel but I would definitely recommend to all ages it kept my attention and I'm forty-four.
It's well written and a definite page turner, pulling the reader in.
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with a free arc of Select by Marit Wiesenberg, it was lovely of you to grant my wish.
This is my own personal unbiased opinion.



Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.beckiebookworm.com/
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/ show less

So what drew me to this book in the first place was the science fiction element. Of course, from the blurb, I knew there was a fair bit of romance. What I wasn't expecting was that 90% of this novel would be romance and only 10% would be actual science fiction. That part was a big disappointment because I thought there would be more to her powers than what the author had in mind. I think if the author had spent more time developing the science fiction aspect of the story, there would have been more depth to the story. However .... I still really enjoyed the book. I usually don't like romance novels; they make me cringe with the clichéd phrases. But for some reason, this one worked. Now, I'm not saying that the romance between Josh and show more Julia was spot-on; there were some definite holes in the way things worked and developed between the two. But it also reminded me of my own high school experiences, the friendships that blossom into something more, and the sweetness of first love. It was cute and sweet and simple and I liked it. I also liked that the author showed how Julia was affected by the actions and thoughts of other characters. While this made the story more of a realistic fiction than science fiction, it was an aspect that was still well done. Now, if you were looking for a good science fiction novel, then this is not the one for you. I mean, it seriously has nothing to offer in terms of that genre. If you like sweet romance mixed with family drama, then you would probably enjoy this story. Because that's pretty much what it's all about. Because the science fiction part was misleading but I actually enjoyed the romance part of this story, I'm giving this a 3.5/5 stars.

I received this novel as an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For more reviews, visit: www.veereading.wordpress.com show less

"Select" by Marit Wiesenberg was very different than what I expected. I had assumed it would be a book about the descendants of the "Annunaki" but it turned out to be very different.
Julia is from a race of highly evolved humans who are hiding in plain sight among average humans. When she makes an ill-advised mistake that threatens to expose her group, she is "punished" by being made to go to an average high school away from everyone she knows and loves until she is in their good graces once again.
The more I read the book, the more fascinated I was with Julia's world and also Julia herself. She seems like she does not quite fit in with her group and also does not fit in with the kids at high school. She obviously has some sort of appeal show more with her black hair, tattoos, and tough attitude because she finds herself connected in more ways than one with a fellow high school student named John. I kept picturing Julia as Lisbeth in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoos movie. I was so involved and interested in this story that I didn't want to put it down. I am really looking forward to the second book in the series. This is a fantastic YA novel that should not be missed.
I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley for free in exchange for my honest review. show less

This novel was definitely different than most I’ve become accustomed to in the YA genre because it was more of a melting between Sci Fi and YA which I found intriguing and a nice change of pace.

This is supposed to be the first in a new series and Marit Weisenberg has a unique insight into the human condition that comes through her characters, their psychological development which evolves through the choices they make, and how they deal with life in general.

The only downside that I could see is the romance part between the two main characters. I can seriously see that being an either love it or hate it part of the book’s storyline because it’s classic YA. Considering what a different type of plot overall the author went for it show more would’ve been nice to see more depth and complexity in this area. I also wish she had tightened up the dialogue some, at times she made the characters sound older through her word choices than they were purported to be.

She has a way of creating characters you will either invest in or hate.

There are some interesting surprises and the conclusion will make you want to read the sequel when it hits. There just seemed to be a little bit of everything in this book which made it compelling enough to read, worthy of my time and curious to see where she’ll go in the second. show less