Released: August 3, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Sixteen-year-old Neva has been trapped since birth. She was born and raised under the Protectosphere, in an isolated nation ruled by fear, lies, and xenophobia. A shield "protects" them from the outside world, but also locks the citizens inside. But there's nothing left on the outside, ever since the world collapsed from violent warfare. Or so the government says...
Neva and her best friend Sanna believe the government is lying and stage a "dark party" to recruit members for their underground rebellion. But as Neva begins to uncover the truth, she realizes she must question everything she's ever known, including the people she loves the most.
**Note: This is a DNF review. Therefore, there will be no rating, and my opinion is based solely on the first few chapters of the book.
I didn’t finish Dark Parties, so I really can’t form an opinion based on the book as a whole. I did read the first eight chapters, though, and this “review” will be based on that.
In the first chapter, I didn’t really see any world-building. It opens at one of the dark parties, which makes sense, given the title. However, this is a dystopian, right? I would think the first chapter would give us some sort of idea of their world. I personally saw very, very little of that. Second chapter, a few more things about this world started to trickle in, and I found them to be unbelievable. I just couldn’t buy into the Protectosphere. The government’s control, I could see, but the literal bubble they’re living in? Not so much.
Another issue I had is that within the first chapter, there has already been not one, but two make-out scenes. Even worse, they’re with two different guys. I haven’t read enough of the book to know where either of these “relationships” go, but I did read enough to realize that our narrator isn’t very honest, omitting some serious info from her best friend. A few chapters into the book, I still don’t care about the narrator.
And then she makes things worse, going from not-so-great-friend to doesn’t-even-deserve-the-title-friend, and at this point, I gave up. I just can’t read a book that doesn’t catch my attention with the story, and makes me dislike the main character less than halfway through.
As a huge fan of dystopian novels, this one failed to grab me.
--Amanda
--Amanda
The main protagonist definitely ruins this book. I found it hard to like her, as well. I did finish the book, but it took more days than usual to complete it.
ReplyDelete@Melissa, glad to see I didn't miss out by not giving her *more* of a chance!
ReplyDeleteIt's disappointing when the protagonist ruins the story for you. Sometimes, I can stick with a story if the secondary characters make up for the protag's stupidity, but most of the time, I'll give up long before that.
ReplyDeleteIt's really unfortunate, because I think that a book could be great... even with a bratty protagonist. It seems like a lot of readers give up, though.
Bummer that this was a DNF, as the premise sounded interesting. But yeah, if the characters are unlikeable, then no matter how intriguing the world building or plot line, I don't care about any of it because I don't care about the character.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the honest review!
Smiles!
Lori