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Half Lives

by Sara Grant (Goodreads Author)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 23 ratings · 0 reviews

Present day: Icie is a typical high school teenager - until disaster strikes and her parents send her to find shelter inside a mountain near Las Vegas.

The future: Beckett lives on The Mountain - a sacred place devoted to the Great I AM. He must soon become the leader of his people. But Beckett is forced to break one of the sacred laws, and when the Great I AM does not str...more

Paperback, UK, 256 pages

Published May 2nd 2013 by Indigo

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UK YA in 2013

18th out of 123 books — 161 voters

2012 Releases (2nd List)

39th out of 189 books — 132 voters

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May 12, 2013 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I got this book as an ARC and to be honest, I had no expectations of it, as I didn’t even know the genre when I applied for it. It’s a book set in two different timelines, one contemporary and the second one is told from several points of view at some indeterminate time.

In the first timeline, Icie (“Isis”) is a normal American teenage girl going home from school with her would-be funky friend Lola to hang out at “Bucks”, when she receives an urgent text from her Dad instructing her to come home...more I got this book as an ARC and to be honest, I had no expectations of it, as I didn’t even know the genre when I applied for it. It’s a book set in two different timelines, one contemporary and the second one is told from several points of view at some indeterminate time.

In the first timeline, Icie (“Isis”) is a normal American teenage girl going home from school with her would-be funky friend Lola to hang out at “Bucks”, when she receives an urgent text from her Dad instructing her to come home instantly. She’s not been caught out in some minor teenage misdemeanour but her parents have decided to suddenly flee the city so when she arrives home, she’s almost instantly bustled off to Dulles airport where her parents tell her to find a mysterious mountain bunker somewhere near Las Vegas. They’re separated on the journey and so Icie strikes up an odd friendship with Marissa, a girl with attitude but plenty of courage. A diversion of Icie’s plane to Phoenix and the subsequent chaos this causes, forces Icie to allow Marissa to tag along with her to her final destination. Along the way, they collect Tate, a wealthy pre-teen with contacts in Las Vegas but no immediate help, and Chaske, who is of indeterminate age but surprisingly well-armed for someone on a camping trip. Icie decides to take her new companions into her confidence and leads them to her bunker, where they make a home and sit it out for the duration. The rest of the book essentially details the explorations they make of the bunker, the discoveries they make about each other and which of the characters survive to the end.

In the second timeline, a group of young adults live on a mountain and keep an eye out for ‘Terrorists’ coming to invade them. They have lots of mantras classified as ‘just saying’ and “Facebook” pictures, which their leaders must memorise before being passed as cheerleaders. The main characters in this section are called Beckett, Finch, Harper, and Atti. They are bound by worship and fear of the Great I AM who is their god on the mountain. Their adventures consist of trying to make sense of their mountain lifestyle and to work out who the real enemy is.

I must admit that i read this book in a slightly unorthodox fashion as I couldn’t get into Beckett & Co., story whilst I was still working on Icie’s story. So I skipped the different print of the second story in order to jump back to Icie but when I’d read her accounts, Beckett’s story made more sense. I kept expecting the two timelines to join up at some point – maybe I’ve watched too much Dr Who! but they stayed apart. However, the reader and Beckett’s team do learn the truth about the mountain and the power it has exerted over their lives. I did pick up on the similarities between Beckett’s team and a certain book called “To Kill a Mockingbird” and yes, that does feature in this novel. However, you don’t need to have read it in order to enjoy this book. Some small appreciation of the irony of Samuel Beckett’s “Godot” might go down well, though.

I’m not altogether sure that the author has hit the target of a YA book with her topic/theme though as many teenagers probably don’t care what happens next year, let alone in xxxxxx years time but it is/was something that needs to be considered particularly in less regulated countries. I must admit that I’ve barely given it a thought myself so there’s probably many more people like me out there.

One minor issue. I did read a review linked to Goodreads before I wrote this but the author of that piece referred to Icie as Isis throughout which suggested that she hadn’t read the book properly as Isis is only used two or three times – Sara Grant evidently wanted her known as Icie to her co-characters. There are reasons for this. So please when you write book reviews, describe the characters by the name they’re given, even if you don’t like them.
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Apr 27, 2013 Justin Unrau rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, ya

http://librarianaut.com/2013/04/27/bo...

1 like · like · see review

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About Sara Grant

She loves everything about books – writing, editing and reading them. She has a brain full of story ideas and a bookcase overflowing with books. She also adores visiting schools, libraries and bookshops and sharing her passion for stories. As a senior commissioning editor for Working Partners, a London-based company creating series fiction for children, Sara worked on twelve different series and e...more

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