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| Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean, in this thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. |
*badly edited as it is a rant.
Bad book. Bad, bad, boring book. May I say this was a book of cliches? It certainly, undoubtedly was. It was highly, highly predictable throughout and I almost couldn't bring myself to finish it. I, at the end, just flipped around in it till I reached the end, closed it, and then contemplated how this book could have been such a large, drastic waste of words, ink, and effort. Poor, poor trees. Your remains have been wasted.
Ava, the main character was plain irritating to me. I guess , maybe, she was created to be as she was so the author could emphasize the way she was raised and the culture she was born into but if that was the case, the author took it too far. I found Ava to be indecisive, and weak- a blob of moving goo. I understand that Ava has grown up and was raised under a male dominated society so her meekness is expected. However, she never seems to grasp the full idiocy of her actions and situation.
The number one thing that irritated me was he immediate love for (whatever his name was) Luck. Basically the story line/ romance between them flows along the lines of this:
1. Boy meets Girl
2. Boy is strange and different to Girl exposing her to new ideas and things
3. Boy and Girl are at marriageable age
4. Boy and Girl meet again suddenly realizing the love each other with no large prior romance or connection
5. Boy and Girl are one same ship and Girl is to be married
6. Boy and Girl believe they are to be the new married couple
7. Boy and Girl goes "have fun" (Girl no longer a virgin if you didn't get that)
Now of course do to the cliche nature of this story Ava was not actually supposed to marry the boy thus they both screwed up big time. All in short, Ava and Luck both got into very big trouble and Ava was presumed to be sentenced to be executed due to her sin before being saved by one of the widows on the ship who took sympathy. Boom, widow is captured, girl escapes and is girl is once again alone.
Basically that is the flow of the story.
Oh, and I have to get to the best part. So after Ava falls from the sky and is on earth she becomes all depressed and stuff and is taken care of this really nice family. Of course though, her first thought is that: I might be having Luck's child!, and she becomes super excited, loving, and hopeful. Really girl? You've met him a few times, you screw around with him and gets yourself kicked off your home probably forever (good thing too), and after all this all you feel is that I might be pregnant as you've had no period due to post traumatic stress and recovery? Think Child! I can't stand your idiocy.
Also, another thing that irked me was that I never exactly knew how to picture her. In her description she is described as darker than the other women on her ship and has dark black hair which was dyed auburn to conform with all the other women on the ship. I assumed that her ethnicity was Indian due to the fact her aunt was from Mumbai and so was her Grandfather (assumed). However, once she lands on earth, it is immediately said that Ava is paler than the other people. I can still go with Indian was there are skin tone differences and she is most likely pretty diluted in blood due to her bloodline with the people on the ship. So you'd assume that she was Indian in culture somewhere right? Well then the cover completely contradicts everything. I know you're never supposed to judge by the cover but if you're going to place a damsel in distress who's depiction largely resembles Ava, I'm going to assume its her. Now the girl on the cover is clearly Caucasian as far as I can tell. Stop book! Your description and cover is very confusing. May you please stay consistent?
I guess that the only part of this book that was okay-ish was the fact that she did not go back and be all happily married with Luck, instead choosing to remain on her as she has "changed". Congrats Ava, you've moved one. So yes, that was the only main part that I kind of liked in this book with a horrendously annoying protagonist.
I don't believe I'd recommend this book to anyone. But if you're really desperate for a read that guarantees frustration I'd say go for it! (note the sarcasm). As you can tell I'm pretty biased to not like this book but if you must give it a try and see if you note differently.
Last Thought: I read this book in its ARC form (advanced reader's copy) so it might have changed a little for the better in its official publication process. However, though an ARC copy the amount of grammatical errors, spelling errors, and perhaps formatting errors was appalling. I don't believe I've ever seen such a badly edited ARC. I found it slighly insulting they would use such a bad copy and print it into an Arc. It was hard and confusing to read. Alright, rants over.
*Also note the use of "So". The author keeps on saying "So" and Ava regards herself as the so girl. This was super confusing and I don't believe they never explained what it was in the book? The might have but I sped read. I'm hoping this is fixed or was supposed to be substituted for something else, Idk, but I was very confused with it.
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