Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi is told in alternating voice. Aria was born in a domed city, a world where everyone spends most of their time in the digital realms (like on Caprica). Perry lives in the real world in a settlement and has advanced senses. When Aria takes off her viewscreen and steps into the real world with some friends in a hope that one of them will be able to get some information on her mother. Things quickly get out of hand causing the deaths of a few of her friends and she finds herself kicked out of the dome and left to die where she meets up with Perry who is searching for his nephew who has been kidnapped by Aria's people. The two start on a journey together which will put both their lives at risk.
This is one of the books for the new year that has been over hyped and portrayed as totally fantastic. The back of the book compares it to The Hunger Games and Graceling which made me raise my eyebrows. It does not resemble the Hunger Games at all. In reality it's more like Graceling (people with strange enhanced powers and a couple going on a journey though a strange and dangerous world) combined with the digital world of Caprica set in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Ultimately however, it is a book about two unlikely characters meeting up going on a journey and falling in love while realizing they're more alike than they once thought.
This book was interesting but flawed. It has some major pacing issues and doesn't really come together until the two main characters meet up several chapters into the book and the book felt much longer than it really was. I had no problems putting the book down and wasn't anxious to pick it back up. The world is large and not fully explored and characters and situations are far too often left hanging with no resolution (although I'm sure they'll pop up in the later books). There were however some interesting ideas and situations in the book and I came to care about the characters and their motivations and I never felt like giving up on the book.
Appropriateness: This is a book that was obviously written for older teens. The characters act older and the book was fairly heavy, it is not a quick or light or fun read. There is one sex scene but it's so tame that you might miss it if you blink and the characters drink alcohol a few times (once with a character getting drunk and then getting himself into a fight because he's so upset). However there is a huge amount of senseless violence with characters killing without a second thought and for the most part feeling no remorse after the fact even when multiple people are killed. I would recommend this book to teens 14+ and caution parents of younger readers about the excesses of violence included in the story.
Review copy provided by Amazon Vine
