Under The Never Sky - Review

Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Published -  Harper Collins/ Atom 2012Number of Pages - 376My Review -

'Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of the Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she has never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim.The Arie meets an Outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive.'

SPOILER Aria lives in a virtual world. Her people moved into the comfort of the space less and impersonal pods after the Aether (the sky) started to flare and strike the earth, scorching everything in its path. When Aria tries to find out information about her mother, who Aria can't contact due to 'technical difficulties', and in the process unleashes a fire in a pod almost killing her. The counsel blaming her for the deaths of three of her companions lie about taking her to see her mother and instead dumps her into the barren wasteland of the Outside.   The she meets Peregrine or Perry who has just lost his nephew after some dwellers (people like Aria who live in the pods) kidnapped him. Reluctantly joining forces, the two of them work together to find people who can help break Aria into Bliss, her mother's research pod. 

REVIEW
I'll say firstly that I don't like giving books low marks. Only few books I've ever read, have deserved 1 out of 5. When I get a low/ bad review for my book, it is disheartening. But I feel that this book, wasn't really for me. It took me almost three weeks to finish actually reading it. That might be due to work and University time constraints, though I have to admit that I didn't look forward to reading it. So I put it off a lot.   Anyway, I picked it up because I love distopian stories. The idea of people living in pods, with the ability to think of a world and actually feel like they are there (like a super advanced game of second life) is fascinating. Probably the only redeeming factor within in this book is the idea of the technology, and it wasn't talked about very often. The Outside world was almost like a viking life and that too was really interesting. Perhaps if the story focus more of the technology or the Outsider village life, it might have impressed me more. But then it wouldn't be a love story about two opposites.  The love connection between Aria and Perry was predictable and I knew what was going to happen only 10 chapters into the story. I like surprises. I need to be guessing or I get bored and I tend to skim read to get it over with. And unfortunately, it happened in this case. There wasn't much that kept me interested once the physical relationship between Aria and Perry progressed and the ending when Aria found her mother, made the deal with the counsel-man and then left looking for the Still Blue, could have all been slowed down and expanded. 
Technology is extraordinary but the love story is underordinary.