A review by treeswerepens
External Forces by Deborah Rix

3.0

I read this book as a recommendation from a friend who received a copy from NetGalley and wanted to discuss it with someone.

I definitely liked External Forces enough to keep reading the book for the few days it took. I felt the story had somewhere to go, even if the overall social commentary wasn't heavily focused on. I kept hoping that at any moment now the book would really focus on it and I'd have a reason to really want to fight with the characters.

Unfortunately, that information doesn't really come in until the end of the book. This is one of those teen sci-fi books that uses the sci-fi genre to tell a romance story. If that's the kind of stuff you like, that's great.

Spoiler

The love story wasn't hopeless and I didn't feel that Jess made horrible decisions to make Matt love her.

That's a pretty big deal.

I really feel there could have been more world building. I feel that this book would have received a higher rating from me had there been a lot more focus on

Spoiler

Deviants, Jess' deviation, The Red Hand, and the Devotees

. Instead, they felt like they were there to really move the love story along.

I do think that the ultimate social commentary reveal regarding

Spoiler

GMO seeds

was interesting. I may pick up the second book to see what is done with that, because that's what this genre is really supposed to do: comment on what our current society is doing by placing it in the future and showing a potential way that it worked out for them. I'm just worried that Rix will focus too heavily on the romance again, and forget there there is so much more to her world.