Disappointing, poor writing,

In concept, I think this story is amazing. It’s action packed with a truly fascinating premise, but I think the pacing could benefit from slowing down. For example, the story, tells us that Max loves his parents and that’s a rather important detail that’s used to control him, but there’s very little narrative substance for this (at least within the first few chapters. I honestly can’t get through this book so I’ve left off at chapter 15). There’s inconsistency in character, and it feels like the characters are agents to perpetuate the plot rather than the plot being defined by character action. The protag also has a history of SA, which felt completely irrelevant to the narrative, especially in the way it was handled.

If I enjoy the plot enough, I’m usually pretty forgiving of poor writing, but the bad far outweighed the good for me. I think this author has strong potential and great ideas, but he needs to focus on building consistency in character, crafting the plot around plausible character decisions/reactions, and cutting back on shock value trauma moments for the sake of it. (In addition, readers don’t need to be directly told how to feel about things. The writing itself should carry the implications)

I think the narrator did really well for certain character (usually the nasally villains), but many character voices, including the protagonist, annoyed me, which made it difficult to listen to.

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