Overall I really enjoyed this book. My favourite part is definitely the premise though, because I've read the gamut of dystopia, and have seen pretty much every way we imagine the world as we know it ending, but this, the earth's rotation slowing so that day and night are each half the year, so the earth is either frozen in darkness or burning in constant, scorching sunlight, that's a new idea, and that intrigues me. I also love the concept of those who survive this world by constantly sailing around the ocean, chasing that perfect time in between day and night, where you won't burn or freeze to death.
That idea just seems amazing, and there's so much potential with this world for it to be amazing. I want to know so many things about this new world, like where do other people live, how to they survive? How do they get their food, what do their lives look like? What about the animals and the rest of nature? (I mean, this happened over a hundred or so years, so the animals should have had time to adapt, right?) Fortunately for me, the world building is solid enough that I more or less got answers to most of these questions, and to many of the questions I didn't know I had, which meant that I was satisfied with this book. And because I thought the idea was so cool, I even decided to learn a little science about what would happen if the earth stopped rotating. Turns out we would get two super oceans, hence the Eventides and Morgantides, so I guess the author has also done her research. Which is awesome, because there's nothing worse than reading sci-fi/dystopian stuff and thinking, "wait, what? That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works!"
I was definitely pleased with the level of world-building. Now granted, I would have liked more, but I could always use more world building (provided it's worked into the story, and not just horribly info dumped all random and without reason). I'm a huge fan of total immersion in a world. I like when there is SO MUCH world building that I can easily imagine myself living in that world, as one of its people, and though there were a few extra little things I would have liked to know more about in this story, (like how the caves are kept at a temperature comfortable for people. Are they just dug close enough to the earth's core that it's constantly warm enough to live, or what?), the world building was good enough for me to imagine my place in that world, so I'm pleased with it.
Beyond that though, this is really a romance. It's got all the trappings of a dystopia, and it succeeds on every level I want a dystopia to, so I guess it IS a dystopian novel, but it's also definitely a romance novel, the story of a boy and girl overcoming prejudice and falling in love. As far as the prejudices go, well, it makes sense. We're people, no matter what, we'll always find some way to divide ourselves and hate each other over nothing. So I guess in that sense, the prejudice was nice to see, in the sense that it made the world feel authentic. People have had prejudices for thousands of years, and sadly, I don't think they're going away in a few hundred. This book is set roughly 700 years after the earth stops rotating, whenever that is, but somehow I doubt that small minded idiots will have grown smart enough to let go of their hatred by then, so sadly, we'll probably still have racial problems. While that is truly sad, I did like its inclusion in the book, because it feels realistic (tragically), and it does provide some help in terms of the story of these star crossed lovers, and the plot, but most importantly, it serves as a message/lesson in this book, that there might always be hateful, intolerant people, but that more importantly, there will always be people who are willing to look beyond stereotypes and see the truth of a person, see who they are. Yes, there may be racism in this world, but there is also hope, because some are willing to ignore those prejudices and get to know a person, and I love that message, it's beautiful and necessary (that's what I mean when I say it's nice that racism is included in the book. Racism isn't a good thing, but shining light upon it and proving that it's stupid IS).
This book was great, I pretty much devoured this, and I don't have much else to say about beyond that. Oh, except for about the characters. I felt like our main characters did have some development, especially Liv, she grew a lot, and it's always nice to see characters that aren't totally one dimensional. Also, in terms of characters, and little world building things, I really love the Eventide custom of getting the half sentence tattoo. I think that's so cool, so romantic, and I would love to do that in real life (in some fashion. I obviously couldn't just get it, then wait to meet someone who also happened to magically complete it, but maybe we could get half a sentence each AFTER we decide to marry, who knows). It's the little cultural details like that that really make this book come alive and feel interesting and real.
This story was so awesome, and it was a good complete story, totally self-contained, with a perfect ending that brought closure. I'm perfectly happy with this book as a standalone, but that said, I would NOT be sad if the author up and decided to revisit this world and who us what it looked like a year or 5 into the future. There'd be plenty to write about too, the struggle of trying to change things on the council, life in Gaia, there's plenty more of this world that could be written, and if that happened, I would be all in for it. But at the very least, I REALLY appreciate this as a self contained story, because it stands on it's own well. And god knows I hate when a standalone really ought to have been a series, because I finish it and feel like I got no damn closure. This book is perfect on it's own, and is missing nothing, I just love the world so much, and it's so rich, that it would be easy to return to, and I'd be delighted if we did revisit this world and its characters.
This is just a great book, and I could read 8 more books about these people in this world if the author decided to write them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves dystopia, because this premise felt like a breath of fresh air in the over-saturated dystopian YA market. Although, do remember that it's also a romance. I know some people are looking for only dystopias, but I don't mind getting both, provided the romance doesn't take over and leave the book a romance with the shell of systopia around it (a la Selection style. Those are romance novels NOT dystopias). I really think anyone who likes either romance or sytopias could read this book and enjoy it though. And I can recommend this book to literally everyone, because it's and incredibly clean book.