Book Review: The Young World by Chris Weitz

Wednesday, July 16, 2014
I love reading. Books are amazing. They are a form of escapism, yes, but they are also inspiration, joy, and... well. Goodness. I think in some ways I have used my appetite for reading to define parts of my personality, so it made sense for me to review some of what I read! Here we go...



Title: The Young World
Author: Chris Weitz
Series: Book One of The Young World Trilogy
Publication Date:

Synopsis: "Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens.
After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girls he's secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.
The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park...and discovers truths they could never have imagined."


My thoughts: Again with spoilers in the synopsis... euch. ANYWAY. I will be the first to tell you that I'm not a huge fan of dystopians - particularly YA dystopians. It doesn't stop me from reading them very often, but I went into this one with a large dose of expectation. Expectation that I wouldn't like it, that is.

You know what's coming. This book actually really surprised me. The character of Jefferson, in particular, was really interesting. You could see how he didn't want to be a leader, but he still kept pushing himself to do it. He tried to keep people together despite being in such an awful (and sometimes darn awkward) situation. Donna's character seemed more similar to the typical teenager just trying to deal with the aftermath of the Sickness - she occasionally irritated me with her speech (I honestly didn't know what she was saying sometimes) and her attitude to some things (super obvious avoidance of spoilers here).

The story kept me interested, and I am still thinking about it a few days after I've finished it - which is a good sign to me that I will probably pick up the second book when it comes out. However, I did think some parts of the storyline were a little too convenient, and I dislike that this book mentions the romance side of things in the blurb when I didn't really find that to be a main focus - it was there, yes, and I'm sure others would argue with me that it takes over more of the story than I think, but I just didn't think it was big enough to warrant a mention in the blurb.

The Young World was much more enjoyable than I thought, and I am interested to see what other people will think of this new dystopian YA.


I received an unsolicited proof copy of this book from Hachette.

You would like this book if: you like dystopian YA books, you're interested in certain stereotypes getting turned on their head.

Rating:  7.5/10

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2 comments:

  1. Oh man, the synopsis really appeals to me. I think I might give this a read.

    ReplyDelete

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