thelivelyreader's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
littleelfman's review against another edition
3.0
It's nice to have a book like this set in Australia. The apocalypse will happen to us too, you know...
thistlechaser's review against another edition
1.0
This book went downhill very very fast. It started with such an interesting idea: Set in the real world, current times, one night something falls from the sky. Green sparkling somethings. No one knows what it is, but it happens all over the world. Soon almost everything (plants, people, animals) is Changed (capitalized as in the book). The Changed glow like the stuff that had fallen from the sky. Their eyes change colors. Animals try to talk -- they make sounds they never made before. The whole story was creepy and cool.
Then the story took an annoying left turn into unrealistic, unbelievable YA stuff, including a Dark, Silent, Sexy boring love interest for the teenage girl main character. I stopped reading about a third of the way into the book. I'm really disappointed that the writing didn't live up to the cool idea.
Then the story took an annoying left turn into unrealistic, unbelievable YA stuff, including a Dark, Silent, Sexy boring love interest for the teenage girl main character. I stopped reading about a third of the way into the book. I'm really disappointed that the writing didn't live up to the cool idea.
shanayahreads's review against another edition
1.0
Actual rating: 0.5 stars
Full Review Here
So before reading this book I didn’t really know much about it, and hadn’t actually heard of it before Pan Macmillan sent me an email about it and I received a copy for review. This, however, does not change my feelings or influence my review in any way. In total honesty, I didn’t enjoy this book. Maybe with some tweaking, it could be better, but too many things didn’t sit right with me.
Firstly, WARNING there is animal abuse in this book, and even though it wasn’t the main characters who did it, it was still disgusting and I couldn’t read it properly. I had to skip through it and seriously considered DNFing it, but I didn’t purely because I hate DNFing books.
Ok, so I didn’t completely understand the point of the book. I get that everyone’s supposed to be like nooOoooOOOOOOo omg I don’t want to catch the thing!!! And try and stop the spreading, but Callie literally said that it’s not contagious? If it’s not contagious and people don’t care why are the infected being quarantined????? Why are so many people trying to stop them????? And if the rest of the world think’s its contagious, why do so many of the people they come across literally do not care? And want to help them??? I don’t understaaaaaaaand. ALSO throughout the ‘adventure’ Callie is told to not trust anyone, but what does she do? Trust a random teenage guy who conveniently helps them get on a truck, and trusts so many other people along the way. AND does she ask questions? NOPE. Blindly accepts vague answers and trusts people <– do you see the problem here?? because I sure do.
The characters were pretty bland, not going to lie. I can admire Callie’s determination to protect her sister, sure, but what was she planning on doing when her sister turned? Take care of her at risk of being eaten or something (not really sure what was supposed to happen when they changed, but eh you get the gist)?? Callie’s inability to look past protecting her sister was infuriating at times, I just wanted her to sit down and think about things very, very thoroughly. Matt was the vaguest character ever, like everything about him was vague and shady, I didn’t like it. He didn’t really give any proper reasons for doing anything and I was just really suspicious of him. Gracie, the ‘infected’ sister, was the most mature 6-year-old (pretty sure she was 6 years old, but I may be wrong) I have ever read about. Most of the time I just pictured her as a 12-year-old, because that made my brain much less confused.
Wasn’t a fan of the romance aspect. Yeah, I could see them getting together in the end, but that’s just because it’s one of the biggest YA tropes. I didn’t feel a connection between the characters, and I don’t know if this would be considered one of those ‘live life like you’re dying’ situations where everything’s super rushed, but I didn’t like it. The characters didn’t know each other for very long, hardly know anything about each other and just because they travel together for a bit makes them compatible? And in love????? I don’t think so.
And, besides all that, majority of the story was travelling. There’s only so much travelling I can handle in one book, especially when that book is less than 300 pages and supposedly has a larger plot to it.
So yeah, as you probably would’ve guessed by now I won’t recommend this book. If you’re looking for a OzYA book or a book set in an apocalyptical world, there are so many other better ones to try out. I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading the second or third instalments. Sorry for such a negative review, but I honestly just couldn’t deal.
I received a review copy from the publisher
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Full Review Here
So before reading this book I didn’t really know much about it, and hadn’t actually heard of it before Pan Macmillan sent me an email about it and I received a copy for review. This, however, does not change my feelings or influence my review in any way. In total honesty, I didn’t enjoy this book. Maybe with some tweaking, it could be better, but too many things didn’t sit right with me.
Firstly, WARNING there is animal abuse in this book, and even though it wasn’t the main characters who did it, it was still disgusting and I couldn’t read it properly. I had to skip through it and seriously considered DNFing it, but I didn’t purely because I hate DNFing books.
Ok, so I didn’t completely understand the point of the book. I get that everyone’s supposed to be like nooOoooOOOOOOo omg I don’t want to catch the thing!!! And try and stop the spreading, but Callie literally said that it’s not contagious? If it’s not contagious and people don’t care why are the infected being quarantined????? Why are so many people trying to stop them????? And if the rest of the world think’s its contagious, why do so many of the people they come across literally do not care? And want to help them??? I don’t understaaaaaaaand. ALSO throughout the ‘adventure’ Callie is told to not trust anyone, but what does she do? Trust a random teenage guy who conveniently helps them get on a truck, and trusts so many other people along the way. AND does she ask questions? NOPE. Blindly accepts vague answers and trusts people <– do you see the problem here?? because I sure do.
The characters were pretty bland, not going to lie. I can admire Callie’s determination to protect her sister, sure, but what was she planning on doing when her sister turned? Take care of her at risk of being eaten or something (not really sure what was supposed to happen when they changed, but eh you get the gist)?? Callie’s inability to look past protecting her sister was infuriating at times, I just wanted her to sit down and think about things very, very thoroughly. Matt was the vaguest character ever, like everything about him was vague and shady, I didn’t like it. He didn’t really give any proper reasons for doing anything and I was just really suspicious of him. Gracie, the ‘infected’ sister, was the most mature 6-year-old (pretty sure she was 6 years old, but I may be wrong) I have ever read about. Most of the time I just pictured her as a 12-year-old, because that made my brain much less confused.
Wasn’t a fan of the romance aspect. Yeah, I could see them getting together in the end, but that’s just because it’s one of the biggest YA tropes. I didn’t feel a connection between the characters, and I don’t know if this would be considered one of those ‘live life like you’re dying’ situations where everything’s super rushed, but I didn’t like it. The characters didn’t know each other for very long, hardly know anything about each other and just because they travel together for a bit makes them compatible? And in love????? I don’t think so.
And, besides all that, majority of the story was travelling. There’s only so much travelling I can handle in one book, especially when that book is less than 300 pages and supposedly has a larger plot to it.
So yeah, as you probably would’ve guessed by now I won’t recommend this book. If you’re looking for a OzYA book or a book set in an apocalyptical world, there are so many other better ones to try out. I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading the second or third instalments. Sorry for such a negative review, but I honestly just couldn’t deal.
I received a review copy from the publisher
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lifeandliterature's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 Stars. I enjoyed it on the whole but had a few issues.
melbsreads's review against another edition
3.0
Trigger warnings: graphic animal cruelty, violence, descriptions of physical injuries.
I bought this book back in...March? April, maybe?? And I've put off reading it ever since. Honestly, the only reason I even bought it is that it was only $10, which is basically unheard of for a new release book in Australia. And look, it wasn't terrible. I'll probably donate my copy to work when I'm back next year. But it also wasn't fantastic.
I feel like it's heavily influenced by The Day of the Triffids in the set up, what with the green meteor-esque shower and life changing forever as a result of it. And yet it lacked the tension and the political terror and the brilliance of The Day of the Triffids.
I kind of ended up with the feeling that Bradley wrote one book which was originally twice the length, and the publisher was like "Nah, chum. We can turn this into a trilogy!", which would definitely explain the ending.
(Also, the romance was 100% shoehorned into the story and was totally unnecessary, especially seeing as it was almost entirely lacking in chemistry.)
At least the story features a protagonist of colour??
So I dunno that I'll bother reading the next book in the series when it comes out. Although given how fast-paced and easy to read this was, it wouldn't take me long to read it, so...who knows.
I bought this book back in...March? April, maybe?? And I've put off reading it ever since. Honestly, the only reason I even bought it is that it was only $10, which is basically unheard of for a new release book in Australia. And look, it wasn't terrible. I'll probably donate my copy to work when I'm back next year. But it also wasn't fantastic.
I feel like it's heavily influenced by The Day of the Triffids in the set up, what with the green meteor-esque shower and life changing forever as a result of it. And yet it lacked the tension and the political terror and the brilliance of The Day of the Triffids.
I kind of ended up with the feeling that Bradley wrote one book which was originally twice the length, and the publisher was like "Nah, chum. We can turn this into a trilogy!", which would definitely explain the ending.
(Also, the romance was 100% shoehorned into the story and was totally unnecessary, especially seeing as it was almost entirely lacking in chemistry.)
At least the story features a protagonist of colour??
So I dunno that I'll bother reading the next book in the series when it comes out. Although given how fast-paced and easy to read this was, it wouldn't take me long to read it, so...who knows.
mandi_m's review against another edition
4.0
I love that we are getting more Australian dystopian fiction and having great authors doing it is even better! I admire Bradley's work and grabbed a copy of this as soon as it arrived. Gripping teen dystopian fiction that moves from Adelaide up to the New South Wales coast. I am eagerly awaiting the next book.
homicidal_potato's review against another edition
3.0
So I checked the reviews of this book after borrowing it from my library and was dismayed to see the trigger warnings for animal cruelty. With so many peple DNFing the book because of that I actually expected something much more horrible.
Don't get me wrong, it is sickening, but if you've read a lot of crime thrillers, particularly authors like Karin Slaugher, you would have probably read violence that is a lot more descriptive/horrendous.
Having said that, if that scene is too much for you but you have been enjoying the story so far, try skipping a couple of pages first and you might find you are able to continue.
Don't get me wrong, it is sickening, but if you've read a lot of crime thrillers, particularly authors like Karin Slaugher, you would have probably read violence that is a lot more descriptive/horrendous.
Having said that, if that scene is too much for you but you have been enjoying the story so far, try skipping a couple of pages first and you might find you are able to continue.
readunderthestars23's review against another edition
3.0
I received a copy of The Silent Invasion from Pan Macmillan New Zealand to review. This is the first book in the Change trilogy.
I haven’t read a lot of alien invasion stories but the ones I have read I’ve enjoyed. So I was looking forward to reading this. The invasion in this series is completely different to anything I’ve ever read. But in a good way. I really want to know what this infection is and what it means when the things, people, animals and plants, change and what they change into… I’ll have to read the other books in the trilogy to get answers. Hopefully.
There was one thing that bugged me about The Silent Invasion though. I’m not into the ‘insta-love’ storylines but this came out of nowhere. One minute Callie is in a life and death situation and the next she’s apparently in love. But later it sounds like this guy is just a distraction from the fact that Callie’s sister is Changing. I get why she’d want distracting from losing the only family member she had left. But either the guy was a distraction or she loved him I’m not sure it came be both…
Aside from that I liked the story and the ending had a very surprising cliffhanger. I wanted to read the next book before I even read the ending because I had some questions about the invasion, the Change and Callie’s dad. But now I want to know what’s going on.
If you like aliens, invasions and creepy stuff that has people changing into something alien then I’d recommend giving The Silent Invasion a try.
I haven’t read a lot of alien invasion stories but the ones I have read I’ve enjoyed. So I was looking forward to reading this. The invasion in this series is completely different to anything I’ve ever read. But in a good way. I really want to know what this infection is and what it means when the things, people, animals and plants, change and what they change into… I’ll have to read the other books in the trilogy to get answers. Hopefully.
There was one thing that bugged me about The Silent Invasion though. I’m not into the ‘insta-love’ storylines but this came out of nowhere. One minute Callie is in a life and death situation and the next she’s apparently in love. But later it sounds like this guy is just a distraction from the fact that Callie’s sister is Changing. I get why she’d want distracting from losing the only family member she had left. But either the guy was a distraction or she loved him I’m not sure it came be both…
Aside from that I liked the story and the ending had a very surprising cliffhanger. I wanted to read the next book before I even read the ending because I had some questions about the invasion, the Change and Callie’s dad. But now I want to know what’s going on.
If you like aliens, invasions and creepy stuff that has people changing into something alien then I’d recommend giving The Silent Invasion a try.