Title: Away We Go
Author: Emil Ostrovski
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Source: Irish Banana Blog Tours
This book...this book...
Oh this review...
It is going to be hard to write this one. I know it is. I finished reading this book at least a month ago. And ever since then, I have been thinking about how I need to write this review and knowing when this review needs to go up on my blog.
The problem though is, I don't really know how to explain this book and my thoughts about it. The reason being is that my feelings on this one are pretty mixed.
On one hand, there were parts of it that blew my mind, but there were equal amount of parts (or so it felt) that I was like..."what?"
Away We Go takes place in a world where a lot of the children get sick with what is known as the Peter Pan Virus (PPV). The problem with PPV is that usually before any given individual turns 18, the virus kills them.
The governments answer to this virus is to stick all the sick kids into schools/institutions, essentially a quarantine. Adults can't get sick, so they are around, but not really. The sick kids are very limited in their contact world. They have an internet place that they can go, but it is only this one site that they can go to. The information on the site, the books, the movies, the music, the games, all of it are put there by the government. They can't chat with others from the "outside" world. Even the news they are allowed access to is filtered.
So of course, this leads all of those kids in these institutions wondering if what they have been told is real causing them to come up with wild conspiracy theories and guesses.
Great premise for a book if you ask me. And at times, I really found myself pulled in and very intrigued with what was going on. There were things written inside Away We Go that totally blew my mind and made me take a moment to go "woah!" before moving on.
Then there were other times where I found myself willing to put the book down. And there were times where I found myself wondering "what did I just read..."
I also found myself having a hard time reading some of what the characters were saying. There were a couple of characters, thankfully side ones that didn't say very much, that had a tendency to use specific words over and over in their speech. For example, one of the very first characters you meet in this story has a tendency to say "son" after almost everything he says. IT DROVE ME NUTS. I know it was just a side character, and of that I am very thankful, but there were other ways besides doing that to create a personality in the character.
I would also like to note, for those who watch out for these kind of things in books for themselves, or for others, there is swearing and sex. This book is marketed young adult, but I would suggest it for the more mature portion of this group.
It was definitely an interesting reading experience. I am glad I read it though. The mind blowing moments within made it worth it.
This review is based on an eARC provided by the publisher through Irish Banana Blog Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
My Rating
3 Stars
Check out the rest of the tour!
Week 1:
Week 2:
4/14: Bibliphilia - Review
4/15: The Story Sanctuary - Q&A
Loved the review. When I first learned about this book, I was fascinated by the premise. Can't even imagine being a kid knowing there's that every one of your peers will probably die at some point..or a parent knowing your kid could get this virus someday. Will have to check it out.
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