A review by kerrikins
Purenet by H.J. Lawson
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.