laneport's review
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
ashrhall's review
2.0
I was interested in the mystery/conspiracy/what is going on element to keep reading but felt the teenage romance/drama was too much and took away from a good plot. The ending felt rushed after dragging it out for so long.
ginnikin's review
2.0
Would have been three stars, but the ending is a letdown. The pacing goes all wonky, and the climax is very anti-climactic.
Also, the audio quality isn't the best. In several places, I can hear that a line or more has been spliced in, and it's jarring.
Also, the audio quality isn't the best. In several places, I can hear that a line or more has been spliced in, and it's jarring.
katleap's review
This book just wasn't for me. The description sounded super interesting but I was really confused from the get go and it never go any better.
katrinky's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
3.0
the science is interesting, and the pandemic plot (written in 2014) is obviously eerie, but the romance part is cheesy and doesn't land right. the DC references are great. long live Julia's empanadas in AdMo!!
kblincoln's review
5.0
So this book was published a handful of years ago…but wow was it eerily prescient for stuff going on today as I read this in 2021.
I am a big fan of Johnson’s young adult voices, they’re always brutally vulnerable, not too perfect, authentic to their time, and Bird/Emily is exactly what she is: the privileged black high school daughter of government scientist ambitious parents, navigating prep school boyfriend and college decisions.
Only we meet Emily when she’s ditching her perfect boyfriend and the party to hang out downstairs with a stoner, Coffee, who is bad news, but with whom Emily feels more like herself. Then strange stuff goes down, she gets drunk…maybe….and loses her memory of the rest of that night.
All she knows is a some shadowy gov’t dude named Roosevelt thinks she knows something important, something connected to her parents who are away from home “saving” the world in the midst of a deadly virus causing Washington D.C. and the world to go into lockdown.
Yep, it’s a deadly virus book. That’s what made this so eerie to me, the precautions, the lockdowns, the political manuevers for power, the gov’t lies, etc. etc.
But underneath all that plot is Emily losing her “perfect’ life and discovering her authentic self and that’s always awesome to read about.
I am a big fan of Johnson’s young adult voices, they’re always brutally vulnerable, not too perfect, authentic to their time, and Bird/Emily is exactly what she is: the privileged black high school daughter of government scientist ambitious parents, navigating prep school boyfriend and college decisions.
Only we meet Emily when she’s ditching her perfect boyfriend and the party to hang out downstairs with a stoner, Coffee, who is bad news, but with whom Emily feels more like herself. Then strange stuff goes down, she gets drunk…maybe….and loses her memory of the rest of that night.
All she knows is a some shadowy gov’t dude named Roosevelt thinks she knows something important, something connected to her parents who are away from home “saving” the world in the midst of a deadly virus causing Washington D.C. and the world to go into lockdown.
Yep, it’s a deadly virus book. That’s what made this so eerie to me, the precautions, the lockdowns, the political manuevers for power, the gov’t lies, etc. etc.
But underneath all that plot is Emily losing her “perfect’ life and discovering her authentic self and that’s always awesome to read about.
skiracechick's review
3.0
It’s kind of fun (in a demented kind of way) to read books about deadly viruses taking over the world when there’s one kind of doing that right now. In some ways this story slightly parallels reality, but not really. Just kind of trippy to read about. The story was kind of interesting, but kind of out there. Overall, I’m feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.
storytimed's review
2.0
Very cogently conveys race in elite white institutions,and the bits about economic privilege rang true. Really did not like the romance, especially the fact that Bird just let a war happen because she wanted to be with her bf, and couldn't stand him being imprisoned for literally just a few years.
emmalarkin415's review
3.0
I really wanted to like this book. The author had been recommended to me by a friend. I found it a bit hard to follow and got frustrated with the "flow" of the story while reading it. I did like the characters a lot and their story line, actually I really wanted to like them more. They we're your typical YA roles (which is why I wanted to read books by the author) but without much "flow", it was hard to keep wanting to read. I was planning on reading more books by this author, but will maybe hold off a while.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
I started reading this book so long ago. I put it down. I read other things. I came back to it and read it very slowly.
This is the first book I read intentionally for the Andre Norton Award for SF or Fantasy YA, and the 3rd book for that book that I'm reviewing for goodreads. I figured, there are only 11 of these books, how long could it take?
This is basically a plague book set in DC as seen through the eyes of a black female senior in an expensive prep school. It is so many worlds that I'm not in and not especially interested in. Throw in disinterested absent parents and a conspiracy and evil shadowy government figures and it is beyond off the rails.
And yet the characters are interesting and seeing the world from a way different perspective is diverting if not necessarily enjoyable.
This is the first book I read intentionally for the Andre Norton Award for SF or Fantasy YA, and the 3rd book for that book that I'm reviewing for goodreads. I figured, there are only 11 of these books, how long could it take?
This is basically a plague book set in DC as seen through the eyes of a black female senior in an expensive prep school. It is so many worlds that I'm not in and not especially interested in. Throw in disinterested absent parents and a conspiracy and evil shadowy government figures and it is beyond off the rails.
And yet the characters are interesting and seeing the world from a way different perspective is diverting if not necessarily enjoyable.