Qualify

Great books, great details. If you struggle with binge reading I'm sorry but this series will result in several sleepless nights because you won't want to put any of the books down. You will laugh, you will cry and your heart will swell with every single emotion. 100/100 would recommend

3.5 stars — Well hmmm… The first (at least) 1/3 of this book was BORING as all get out. I wasn’t grabbed AT ALL, I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and nothing interesting happened (just a lot of detailed description of every single day). I was seriously starting to wonder why my friends had recommended this book. If it hadn’t been for that recommendation, I would have FOR SURE DNF’d it. But then, *finally*, there was a major inciting incident, and the plot drew me in and kept me fairly enthralled. Normally I love books for characters — and that’s where this book lost so many points with me. I wasn’t invested in Gwen at all. She wasn’t that likable IMO. She’s a geek who makes a comment or two about how gross another geek is (1st kiss being one example)…that was just weird to me. Her entire dealings with Blayne Dubois made me cringe as much as it made him cringe. She’s a little bit too teacher’s pet for me sometimes (even though, I was probably like that to a certain degree). I don’t know…she was just very young I guess. I did appreciate her fervent need to help others and stand up for them, especially when they needed and wanted that help. I loved that she had a bit of a self-sacrificing thing going on, it felt genuine. I appreciated the cleverness we got to see a lot of in the semi-finals. And I even appreciated her inability to stay quiet in the face of injustice…my only problem with that aspect is how her internal thoughts always made it out to be a compulsion, like she wasn’t in control. I didn’t quite understand the purpose of that. I would have appreciated it more if she’d owned it. As for the rest of the characters? There were a TON of them, and thus I didn’t really connect with any of them. I was only meh on her crush/romance with Logan…he was a bit too good to be true. I thought her friendship with Laronda was too easy and unremarkable. She made a lot of very shallow connections with a lot of other characters, but not enough for me to really get to know them. As for her family? They were kind of fun, especially George and Gordie. They sounded like typical brothers. Gracie was annoying as all get out, but that seemed appropriate for her age and personality. So what kept me reading all 600 pages of this book then? It was definitely the plot and the intrigue surrounding the incident, and then the semi-finals themselves were seriously exciting. I don’t want to give spoilers, so I can’t go into things, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what everyone was thinking, what the secrets were, what was going to happen next. I was super happy about some things, and kind of meh on others. I was a bit bummed with the finals — they were a serious let down as a competition, and it truly made me question the purpose of the qualifications and who would qualify. In some ways it wasn’t the best and the brightest, it was the most ruthless and the lucky. I also really appreciated the lore and world development surrounding the Atlanteans, their tech, the weird sound stuff, etc. It was unique, and I appreciated that (even if sometimes I had to suspend my disbelief). Am I curious about what’s going to happen next in this series? Heck yes! Am I willing to invest in 500+ pages for book 2 and 900+ pages for book 3, and who knows how long the series is going to go in book 4? Eh. The problem is that this author needs an editor in the worst way. If there was a Cole’s Notes edition of this series, I would be all over it in a heartbeat. But as it stands? I’m probably going to be lazy and see if I can get someone to give me a condensed version. Bad reader, right? It would have been different if I liked any of the characters more than just meh…but I just didn’t.

If you liked “The Hunger Games” (or just dystopia novels in general) this book is for you. The technological premises are challenging and well-thought. In my humble view the main character is a bit overdeveloped and all other characters have to live in her shadow (yes, it's a girl). There is also a nice blend of romance and adventure which makes the book attractive for the teens/young adults audience and certainly suitable for older generations.