Title: Concentr8
Author: William Sutcliffe
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: January 19, 2016
Source: Irish Banana Blog Tours
Have you ever put off a review because you don't want to write it? That is how it has been with me and my review for Concentr8. I have been trying to get myself to write it for weeks. Actually, to be totally honest, this is not the only review I have been putting off. Well, I decided that I am going to open up where I write my reviews and just write it. I need to get it done.
For those who follow me, you may recall that I actually posted something for Concentr8 a few weeks back - a pocket letter that I made themed off of it. If you want to see it again, don't remember, or this is your first time visiting my little blog, you can find that post right HERE.
Now on to the review.
Concentr8 takes place in London England in the not so distant future. Or maybe it is distant. It is kind of hard to tell. The city is currently under going a riot of epic proportions. Why? The government decided that it would stop supplying the medication Concentr8, used to treat ADHD, to the people. This medication is so wide spread and used by so many people that they all freak out and riot. A lot of them being teenagers.
Teenagers like our main characters. Our story follows a group of them. We start out at the riot, where they aren't doing much at all, and then the ring leader decides to kidnap a random government employee. The other kids don't know why, but they follow along anyways.
Then they take the kidnapped employee into an abandoned warehouse. They become public news. The mayor gets involved. Things happen. The whole story takes place over the course of 6 days.
I personally thought that this story sounded like an interesting one. I had such faith going into it that it was going to be good. I was so bitterly disappointed.
There are a lot of different narratives to follow with in this story. While this is not normally a thing that turns me off, when all the narratives essentially sound like I am following the same person when I am not supposed to be, I find them a horrible drag. And that is how they were in Concentr8. Unfortunately, I found them to be very poorly executed. To make matters worse, I felt like the author had tried too hard with it. So many of the sentences ended with "?"s when they really didn't need to. It made that particular person's narrative very hard to read in my personal opinion.
Aside from the narration, the whole story felt very flat. As I was reading along I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever really did. I felt like I read a whole book where nothing really ever went down. It was quite disappointing.
I will give Concentr8 and William Sutcliffe this though. There was a message to his story, and I think it was a great message. Unfortunately though, I think it was just not executed very well.
My Rating
2 stars
This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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