Oh my god, this book. There are so many ways someone could have taken this premise and done something with it but it would have required some world building that makes sense. Or a protagonist that isn’t a wet blanket but also the most special girl to ever live. Supposedly Emeline is 27 but I would have just as easily believed she was a pod person created the day before the book started.
This is a society built on class and eugenics. The very top are the Illum that rule society with the Elite being the privileged upper class that live in a city in the clouds. Below them are the Minor and Major Defects who are the workers of the society and live on the surface/below ground. There’s also a whole Handmaid’s Tale aspect to it with a focus on breeding and population where the Minor Defects can be chosen as Mates to the Elites. Why exactly a world obsessed with eugenics and perfection would allow the population with “defects” into their gene pool? Who knows, then the world building would have to make sense. The Defect Children attend an Academy with courses like Grooming (for real) – I really needed to author to consider her word choices a bit more here.
Emeline, our clueless heroine, is a Minor Defect born into a family of Elites. She hasn’t seen them since they shipped her off to school as a child and washed their hands of her and her scandalous multi-colored eyes. Yes, our super special girl’s defect is heterochromia. She is described as basically beautiful but can’t bare to look herself in the mirror because of her flaw. As a character, she goes back and forth between lamenting that she is flawed and hating her family for rejecting her even though they were of course right to do so.
The whole world, especially the part for the Minor Defects, feels sparse and sterile. There’s only one other character in Emeline’s world that is even named, Lo, but for as little description as we get, it seems like Emeline is just in vast empty hallways and rooms. A future dystopian novel, it seems like there should be tons of people instead – no one close but all spying on each other, following the rules etc. The world of the Elite shouldn’t feel more populated than the two working classes. Even if they aren’t encouraged to form friendships, there should be people – Emeline’s job is to sit in an office by herself all day looking at a screen. Why isn’t she in a cubicle surrounded by workers?
Emeline’s job makes no sense. Supposedly she sorts art but that would give her some type of agency. She literally sits at whatever counts as a computer screen and sees old art work from before the Last War that has been reviewed and categorized to be destroyed or retained and then clicks delete or retain. She isn’t classifying the art, as far as we can tell, she isn’t even reviewing the decisions based on a checklist to confirm the classification. She is literally just seeing screenshots labeled delete and hitting delete. Why was this middle step added? I was hoping there would be some twist, like they were using this as a way to screen for rebelliousness or something but instead it seems like it was the author’s half assed way to give Emeline some depth, “oh, she is moved by the artwork, she has emotions and thoughts.”
After Emeline is selected for a mating contract, she starts having to go above and has appointments with stylists who are also Minor Defects. They openly gossip about politics and maybe even the rebellion during her first or second time with them even though they haven’t formed a bond at all, and then after Emeline gets them in trouble by spilling some of their gossip, they ask her to report on her mate and join the revolution. Like what? No one’s decisions in this novel make any sense. They are all just irrational and stupid, basically in place ti help awake Emeline and give her a plot line.
Naturally, there are two love interests. Hal represents the defects and the rebellion, and I hated him. He was obnoxious and annoying, and Emeline quickly starts glamorizing him in her head and believing he is the Reaper, the leader of the rebellion. There is no way this is the case and I’m pretty sure he is just letting Emeline believe it to mislead her. And while I acknowledge that Reaper is generic, I also have to give credit to the person on Goodreads that said that the only Reaper we acknowledge is Darrow of Lykos.
The other love interest is Collin, the Ilum that has selected Emeline to be his mate. I preferred him to Hal because there is so obviously more going on with him but his character is barely developed beyond enigmatic and mysterious. Emeline starts with being shocked and overwhelmed that he chose her to realizing, after 27 years, that their world kind of sucks and therefore Collin sucks. The Ilum and Elite hold power over her future, Emeline has been asked to spy for the rebellion, and this dumbass’s response to being in a position to spy during her dawning political awakening is to be incredibly antagonistic and irritating. Like, fine, you hate Collin – go along with him so you can use him.
Honestly Hal and Emeline deserve each other. I hate them both. The only character I liked was Gregory, Emeline’s newly discovered Elite older brother who is also the family screw up.
Apparently this novel is supposed to be the first of a trilogy of trilogies and I’m sorry, what? I get the author can’t reveal everything in the first novel, I honestly didn’t even care about finding out who the Reaper was at this point but an author needs to give me something to justify a trilogy of trilogies. There’s not even enough in this book to justify one novel, let alone nine. Serious, was not expecting to find a contender for worst book of the year in February!
