It is 2033, and the world hovers on the edge of explosion as unexplained crop deaths lead to severe global food shortages. In the United States, the Sickness is taking lives slowly, creeping its way into every family. Fi Kelly has already faced the Sickness in her own family, toughening her beyond her years. But a shocking confession from her dying father will push her toughness to its absolute limits. Saddled with an impossible secret and the mission of saving her little sister, Fi sets out to transform herself into the warrior that she must become to survive the coming collapse. Along the way, she will discover that evil can be accidental and that love can be intentional.Where do I start with this one, it's one of those books that I neither really liked or disliked, I think I will start by calling it pretty average and no, that isn't a bad thing it just means that nothing really stood out for me.
The first thing that I noticed was that this book is quite long, whereas most books take me about four or five hours to read (straight through, no breaks) this one took me multiple settings accumulating to about nine hours, that is due to the pace (quite slow for the first half of the book) as well as the length (6500 locations on my Kindle). I may have read it with less breaks if the pacing had been a little better, I found that for the first 40% we're just getting to grips with the characters and the science and the changing world, then until about 80% the pacing picks up again but after that it drops until the end. There was just enough action in this book to keep me reading, and a touch of romance that I saw coming for a mile off but still enjoyed reading nonetheless.
I loved the world building, the concept of food shortages and the science behind the world was well thought out and just believable enough and original enough for me to read, at times the idea of the survival of the Family started to tiptoe into familiar territory and then Fisher pulled something original out of the bag.
At times, I found that the dialogue and narration seemed a bit too stunted and enunciated for the age of the narrator and it didn't flow well, it was just things like "I am ready" instead of "I'm ready" which is a personal preference and I can see how other people would prefer that to the contractions, I just think that the contractions would have made the dialogue seem more realistic.
Overall, and average read, I would have preferred it with better pacing or a little shorter but it was an entertaining enough read. this books selling point is definitely the world building, which is fantastic.
Overall Rating: C
Book received from the author for review
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