hyperashley's review
3.0
Yet another dystopian book. Dystopian is getting more and more popular so that means I will be reading more and more of them. I like dystopians don't get me wrong but sometimes they all start to blend together. Purenet, is a good, fast read and I don't regret reading it. I actually did enjoy it quite a bit and flew threw it in no time. That could have been because it was a novella though.
Skylier is a young girl forced to live in caves because of the diseases people get from the sun. She wants nothing more than to get out but not enough to become a host and lose control over own body. When she goes on a school trip her life changes forever. She goes to find out secrets about herself, her family and the chancellor.
I thought Skylier was a great female lead. She was strong and feisty and was able to keep control of a motorcycle after being shot. She would do almost anything for her family and proves that by getting medicine for her dying mother.
Dax and Hayden, man was I glad they came into the picture. It seemed to be a boring book until they showed up. Each showing their true macho man-ness when it came to Skylier –for different reasons.
I didn't care for the ending, I hate cliff hangers and no happy endings. I know it's leading up to more books in the future but I still don't like it. I can't believe Hayden betrayed them like that and I can't believe how stupid Skylier was by getting caught. It's always the girls that are dumb enough to get captured. Then the whole "keeping the bloodlines pure" thing was gross and creepy.
I don't know if this is a series I will finish but I'm willing to read the next one.
For more of my reviews visit: http://www.hyperashley.com/
Skylier is a young girl forced to live in caves because of the diseases people get from the sun. She wants nothing more than to get out but not enough to become a host and lose control over own body. When she goes on a school trip her life changes forever. She goes to find out secrets about herself, her family and the chancellor.
I thought Skylier was a great female lead. She was strong and feisty and was able to keep control of a motorcycle after being shot. She would do almost anything for her family and proves that by getting medicine for her dying mother.
Dax and Hayden, man was I glad they came into the picture. It seemed to be a boring book until they showed up. Each showing their true macho man-ness when it came to Skylier –for different reasons.
I didn't care for the ending, I hate cliff hangers and no happy endings. I know it's leading up to more books in the future but I still don't like it. I can't believe Hayden betrayed them like that and I can't believe how stupid Skylier was by getting caught. It's always the girls that are dumb enough to get captured. Then the whole "keeping the bloodlines pure" thing was gross and creepy.
I don't know if this is a series I will finish but I'm willing to read the next one.
For more of my reviews visit: http://www.hyperashley.com/
chllybrd's review
3.0
PURENET is a pretty quick paced and easy to read story. I liked the world and the author did a good job of explaining the characters and their place in the story.
I didn't fully connect to the characters. I liked them fine and Skylier played a strong female role, I just wasn't fully invested. I was highly disturbed by her brother's obsession with her to host his and his wife's baby (which is wrong considering it would really be Skyler and his baby, if I read into that right). There is a bit of a love triangle in PURENET, but it doesn't really get into a romance.
A LOT happens but its really quick and to the point. The ending was decent and unpredictable which was nice. It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger though. Will I read more? Maybe, it was a short book so I think book 2 might be as well and the story does have potential.
* This book was provided free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
kerrikins's review
2.0
This book skews a lot younger than I expected it to be, so I am trying to keep that in mind with my review. It's not fair to judge a book solely on the age range that it aims for, after all!
Overall, I think Purenet is a passable youngish YA novel, delving into a dystopian version of our world.
Skylier lives in the Cueva, always underground to avoid the harshness of the sunlight up above. Her people have been consigned there for many years, ever since a war devastated the world. Only those lucky enough to be born into Purenet can live beneath 'the dome', seeing the sun and having luxuries that those in the Cueva can only dream of - luxuries like the medicine that Skylier needs to save her mother, who is dying of cancer.
This is the thread that the book begins with, and I have to admit that it's pretty fascinating, and why I chose this book to begin with. Unfortunately, within the first twenty pages or so I was greeted with infodumping, and that set the tone for the rest of the book.
I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more if I had realised just how simple the story was going to be. That isn't to say that simple is bad, but this is a very bare-basics story, without a lot of depth. Things are described very simplistically - 'bangs' for guns, 'zooms' for other weapons, etc. We don't learn much about the motivations of characters other than Skylier. The main villain is pretty much a caricature, and I wasn't sure why he was the bad guy, other than that he just, well, is. Which is okay for a children's book, but disappointing compared to the really good YA that I have read.
Because of this lack of depth, the story doesn't have quite the punch that it could have. The world that H.J. Lawson has built, the scenario - it's interesting! It just needs to be fully drawn out in the story and across the pages, and that didn't happen. I kept waiting and hoping that I would find out more and that the author would really delve into the world that has been built, but everything is very on the surface, right up to the rather abrupt ending.
What's left is a fair amount of passable action, but not much to give it substance, and that left me rather cold towards the whole thing. Honestly, at only 120 pages or so, I feel that the book could have easily have been doubled with so much more, and it would have been better for it. The book reads more like thinly-plotted outline of a novel, not an actual one. It's a bit of a shame in that sense, because the concept has a lot of potential.
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, I think Purenet is a passable youngish YA novel, delving into a dystopian version of our world.
Skylier lives in the Cueva, always underground to avoid the harshness of the sunlight up above. Her people have been consigned there for many years, ever since a war devastated the world. Only those lucky enough to be born into Purenet can live beneath 'the dome', seeing the sun and having luxuries that those in the Cueva can only dream of - luxuries like the medicine that Skylier needs to save her mother, who is dying of cancer.
This is the thread that the book begins with, and I have to admit that it's pretty fascinating, and why I chose this book to begin with. Unfortunately, within the first twenty pages or so I was greeted with infodumping, and that set the tone for the rest of the book.
I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more if I had realised just how simple the story was going to be. That isn't to say that simple is bad, but this is a very bare-basics story, without a lot of depth. Things are described very simplistically - 'bangs' for guns, 'zooms' for other weapons, etc. We don't learn much about the motivations of characters other than Skylier. The main villain is pretty much a caricature, and I wasn't sure why he was the bad guy, other than that he just, well, is. Which is okay for a children's book, but disappointing compared to the really good YA that I have read.
Because of this lack of depth, the story doesn't have quite the punch that it could have. The world that H.J. Lawson has built, the scenario - it's interesting! It just needs to be fully drawn out in the story and across the pages, and that didn't happen. I kept waiting and hoping that I would find out more and that the author would really delve into the world that has been built, but everything is very on the surface, right up to the rather abrupt ending.
What's left is a fair amount of passable action, but not much to give it substance, and that left me rather cold towards the whole thing. Honestly, at only 120 pages or so, I feel that the book could have easily have been doubled with so much more, and it would have been better for it. The book reads more like thinly-plotted outline of a novel, not an actual one. It's a bit of a shame in that sense, because the concept has a lot of potential.
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
marie_thereadingotter's review
4.0
Review:
http://pagestoexplore.blogspot.com/2015/01/purenet-by-hj-lawson.html
http://pagestoexplore.blogspot.com/2015/01/purenet-by-hj-lawson.html
kerribookhoarder's review
2.0
This book skews a lot younger than I expected it to be, so I am trying to keep that in mind with my review. It's not fair to judge a book solely on the age range that it aims for, after all!
Overall, I think Purenet is a passable youngish YA novel, delving into a dystopian version of our world.
Skylier lives in the Cueva, always underground to avoid the harshness of the sunlight up above. Her people have been consigned there for many years, ever since a war devastated the world. Only those lucky enough to be born into Purenet can live beneath 'the dome', seeing the sun and having luxuries that those in the Cueva can only dream of - luxuries like the medicine that Skylier needs to save her mother, who is dying of cancer.
This is the thread that the book begins with, and I have to admit that it's pretty fascinating, and why I chose this book to begin with. Unfortunately, within the first twenty pages or so I was greeted with infodumping, and that set the tone for the rest of the book.
I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more if I had realised just how simple the story was going to be. That isn't to say that simple is bad, but this is a very bare-basics story, without a lot of depth. Things are described very simplistically - 'bangs' for guns, 'zooms' for other weapons, etc. We don't learn much about the motivations of characters other than Skylier. The main villain is pretty much a caricature, and I wasn't sure why he was the bad guy, other than that he just, well, is. Which is okay for a children's book, but disappointing compared to the really good YA that I have read.
Because of this lack of depth, the story doesn't have quite the punch that it could have. The world that H.J. Lawson has built, the scenario - it's interesting! It just needs to be fully drawn out in the story and across the pages, and that didn't happen. I kept waiting and hoping that I would find out more and that the author would really delve into the world that has been built, but everything is very on the surface, right up to the rather abrupt ending.
What's left is a fair amount of passable action, but not much to give it substance, and that left me rather cold towards the whole thing. Honestly, at only 120 pages or so, I feel that the book could have easily have been doubled with so much more, and it would have been better for it. The book reads more like thinly-plotted outline of a novel, not an actual one. It's a bit of a shame in that sense, because the concept has a lot of potential.
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, I think Purenet is a passable youngish YA novel, delving into a dystopian version of our world.
Skylier lives in the Cueva, always underground to avoid the harshness of the sunlight up above. Her people have been consigned there for many years, ever since a war devastated the world. Only those lucky enough to be born into Purenet can live beneath 'the dome', seeing the sun and having luxuries that those in the Cueva can only dream of - luxuries like the medicine that Skylier needs to save her mother, who is dying of cancer.
This is the thread that the book begins with, and I have to admit that it's pretty fascinating, and why I chose this book to begin with. Unfortunately, within the first twenty pages or so I was greeted with infodumping, and that set the tone for the rest of the book.
I think I would have enjoyed the book a bit more if I had realised just how simple the story was going to be. That isn't to say that simple is bad, but this is a very bare-basics story, without a lot of depth. Things are described very simplistically - 'bangs' for guns, 'zooms' for other weapons, etc. We don't learn much about the motivations of characters other than Skylier. The main villain is pretty much a caricature, and I wasn't sure why he was the bad guy, other than that he just, well, is. Which is okay for a children's book, but disappointing compared to the really good YA that I have read.
Because of this lack of depth, the story doesn't have quite the punch that it could have. The world that H.J. Lawson has built, the scenario - it's interesting! It just needs to be fully drawn out in the story and across the pages, and that didn't happen. I kept waiting and hoping that I would find out more and that the author would really delve into the world that has been built, but everything is very on the surface, right up to the rather abrupt ending.
What's left is a fair amount of passable action, but not much to give it substance, and that left me rather cold towards the whole thing. Honestly, at only 120 pages or so, I feel that the book could have easily have been doubled with so much more, and it would have been better for it. The book reads more like thinly-plotted outline of a novel, not an actual one. It's a bit of a shame in that sense, because the concept has a lot of potential.
I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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