oh my god!! i just got an unexpected ARC of this on the SAME DAY as i got the new ron rash ARC!!! what is a girl to do??? too many good things at once!!! this is the best nightmare i have ever had!

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this is a very high three-stars. it would have been a four if i was just judging it on enjoyment and the ability of the plot to engage me. but i have decided to be more responsible when reviewing the YA, and not just letting it get away with stuff just because its intended audience is probably going to let it get away with stuff. since the lines between YA and adult fiction keep getting more and more blurred, and since dan wells has written primarily for adults before this, my hammer is coming down.

exposition is tough. catching a reader up to the action occurring in the novel's "past," particularly in dystopian settings where it is bound to be complicated, is tricky. but this isn't a movie. a book has the advantage of not having to do this in dialogue. and when you do choose to do it in dialogue, it just sounds clunky.

character one: remember five years ago when this thing happened??

character two: i do, but then that other thing happened so it made it somehow worse, but we were able to do blank which prevented us from blankety-blanking.

character one: right, but we forgot about that other thing.

character two: yeah, that was rough.

i mean - that is just an example of how awkward this kind of thing can be - it is obviously not as bad in the book, but it rankles nonetheless to have characters sitting around discussing events they lived through as though giving a memorized oral report on historical events.it just works better to have characters thinking these things to themselves. benefit of the medium - ca$h in on it.

the other complaint i have, and this might be unavoidable in YA lit of this kind, is how much agency these kids have. i understand that in a world like this, there would be necessary adaptation, and a heightening of responsibility and maturity, but little teens in business suits and briefcases working in the senate? rising to power in the military? curing cancer? it just seems too fantastic. and our sixteen-year-old heroine is the one to point out the very obvious blind spot in the scientists' research thus far? they spent eleven years performing the exact same tests without ever thinking of that? it just seems unlikely that the scientists are that terrible at their jobs.

and what are the rest of the survivors doing? there are three foci: government.military. doctors/scientists.where is everyone else? who is picking up the trash? did i miss where all the food is coming from? besides the herbs? although i am actually pretty glad that he explained the clothing thing, because it is simple and a cool detail that is never really touched upon in most the the stuff i have been reading. this kind of detail is not important to a lot of people, but i really like aftermath stories, particularly when the details of its restructuring are included. they are not necessary to tell this story, but i do appreciate it when a world built is built densely.

okay - enough nitpicking. because there is plenty of good stuff here. for all the lack in the world-building, there is plenty of detail in the virology elements. a lot of books like this would skimp on the details, and just say, "it is a viiiirus. it makes our babies diieeeee." and not go into why. this does. it is cleverly done, and makes sense, as far as my science-free brain is concerned. this is what made the mira grant books so strong - explanation of how things came to be in a respectable white lab coat. i am on board.

action sequences - also good. everything that happened on manhattan was well-written and gripping - i appreciated all the twists and turns and ambiguity. and then that thing that happens to her in the lab with the (view spoiler)[zzzzzzzzt! (hide spoiler)] - fantastically jarring, that.

characters are mostly good: haru specifically is well-done - there is a lot of shadow in that character, and i really appreciated the murkiness and inscrutability. kira as true-believer is an archetype that can get old pretty fast, but at least she is action, and not just all talk.

aside: i'm not crazy about racial checklist books: one of these and one of those and don't forget to include a this and that mix. it just strikes me as disingenuous and pandering.

he is completely right about the names of towns of long island. ronkonkoma? ridiculous.

and am i the only one for whom (view spoiler)[ the destruction of all that medical equipment is a really big deal? that isn't going to be replaced. there is no one left to make those things anymore. what is going to happen with that? this is a tiny detail that is causing me conniptions. what will happen?? (hide spoiler)]

twists: also done well. especially the one you know which one i am talking about. when that part happened, i literally sat straight up and said, "iiiinteresting" and my brain started racing towards all the places this could go and getting excited to see how the rest of the series will play out.

so - yeah. ultimately, a high-three from me. but with such spectacular potential for future books. i really think this is just a matter of an author trying to fit themselves into the expectations of YA and having a reasonable amount of turbulence. on the one hand - this is definitely not dumbed-down for its audience. on the other, there are just some structural oversights and missteps. but a really fun book with a great future ahead of itself.

maybe not a great future for the characters muahahahahahaa