Mislabeled Fun

Population by Elizabeth Stephens

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The day the sky ripped open and the Others descended on Earth marked the beginning of the World After. Twelve years later and violence is Abel’s native tongue in a world run by monsters, ravaged by gangs, and fueled by the desperation of hunger. The list of rules she lives by keeps her among the few humans left living, but when her best friend’s daughter is taken by one of the Others, Abel discovers that to get her back she’ll have to break them all.

The blurb and the marketing for this book is targeted at the YA/SF audience, which is a shame, because, fun to read as this book is, it’s not YA/SF. What it is is a good old-fashioned bodice-ripper. Admittedly, there’s a bit of sci-fi around the premise - and more than a bit of vampire novel in the story as a whole – but, at bottom, it’s about a feisty young woman seduced against her will (almost) by an incredibly handsome, incredibly powerful, and unbelievably wealthy older man. Viewed in that light, the book is well-executed, with a decent story arc, terrific characterizations, and confident, often funny, dialog. The romance is melodramatic and breathy, but that is no criticism in a bodice-ripper, it just adds to the fun. The protagonists, Kane and Abel (biblical joke? Homage to Jeffrey Archer?), have great chemistry, and the reader finds herself rooting for the two of them, first, to find each other, and then to overcome the obstacles put in their collective way. If there’s a weakness in the writing, it’s with the fight scenes. They are simply too drawn-out to hold one’s interest. The strength of this novel is the romantic interaction, not the violence, and the romantic interaction is good, raunchy fun.

Viewed as a YA/SF novel, Population has serious flaws. There is no rebellion against oppression for our heroine to either join or instigate, there is no hope held out for humanity’s future, and the heroine herself is a sell-out, opting for a life of comfortable servitude rather than inspiring her fellow humans to free the planet. If YA/SF is what you’re looking for, this book is not for you.

Population has another serious flaw, one that cannot be swept away by redefining its genre. The ending. It’s terrible. Stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and while that may be a cliché, the thing about clichés is that they are also true. This book just stops in the middle. Not just in the middle of the story, but in the middle of a scene in the story. I understand the author was looking for a “cliffhanger,” but this is not the way to go about it. To get a satisfying cliffhanger in a novel you need to end the story you’re telling, and begin the story you’re going to tell. In that regard, the ending of this book is an epic fail. I cannot emphasize enough how irritating the ending to this book is. But will I read the sequel? Probably. If the author pulls another stunt like this one, though, I’m done!

If you can get past the fact that Population does not do what is says on the tin, this is a racy, well-written page-turner for those of us who want to be swept off our feet and taken away from it all, if only for 240 pages.

Many thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy in return for an honest review.




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