GoodRead - Day 21

I was thinking of keeping this review back a few days as I only finished this book yesterday and I wanted to keep the review of The 100 and its sequel, Day 21 some distance apart. But am going to post this now just to mess with BookBridgr and Goodreads.

It's day 21 for the 100 sent down to Earth. This day is important, for its when signs of radiation begin to make themselves present. But that isn't the 100's only problems. They thought they were the first humans to set foot on Earth for the first time in centuries.

They were wrong.

With fear of a new, unknown enemy, the 100 has to band together. Wells struggles to keep the 100 together and not turn on themselves. Bellamy is determined to save his sister who was snatched from this enemy. And when trying to help him, Clarke finds evidence that leads to a truth that the 100 aren't the first to be sent to Earth from space. And back on the space station, Glass is forced to make a decision between love and life.

Like I said in my review to The 100 (review here), if you are expecting the TV series (aired on the CW in the USA and on e4 in the UK), you are going to be very disappointed as, while the TV show is dark (with a stupidly high death count - which I adore! NO ONE IS SAFE ON THAT SHOW!), the book is very much romantic driven.

I had problems with this book. I think it's because I read Day 21 very quickly after reading The 100, which isn't something I normally do. But I found Day 21 a real struggle. There was one or two things I really wanted ti stop reading this book - Life's too short to read awful books. In the end, I decided to skip a chapter and skim read because I decided to read this with a bunch of bloggers on Twitter and I didn't want to let them down.

I can list the problems I have - Glass being on the space station and yet, being more worried about her love life than finding out information that might be useful to the reader. Clarke and Bellamy doing stuff without telling anyone what they're planning to do - THERE ARE MYSTERIOUS BAD GUYS KILLING AND YET, GO RUN INTO THE FOREST WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE! And you survive without any real consequences - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I could go on. I could. But I won't as I don't want to rant and rave. This book series, I feel, could have been more sci-fi or more into human survive - as the TV show does. It could have huge twists that shock the reader. But it's more love-driven and the book felt predictable and that's a huge problem with me. This book has so much potential and yet... it falls flat. It's unbaked and, in the words of Mary Berry from The Great British Bake Off, has a bit of a soggy bottom.

I MIGHT continue reading the series, but I think I might have to leave it and continue watching the TV show. I am really getting into it. I think we need to start a drinking game with the amount of death! THIS IS WHY I NEED THE DVD WHEN IT COMES OUT!

GoodRead - The 100

If you don't follow my Twitter feed (twitter.com/PewterWolf13), you should be aware that I am currently enjoying The 100, a sci-fi TV show airing in the UK on e4 (we're on season 1) and season 2 will start being aired in USA on The CW sometime in October.

So when I was sent this a while ago, I was excited to read it. But then I didn't read it. It got pushed down my huge TBR pile. So, when the sequel, Day 21, was on BookBridgr, I requested it with a plan to read the two back-to-back. And with several other bloggers, we agreed to read them together and tweet our thoughts, reactions and feelings over it.

In The 100, the Earth is no longer safe. After a nuclear war, humanity lives in space stations, safe from the raditation. No one was planned to be sent back. Until now. 100 juvenile delinquents are being sent down to Earth to find out if it's safe to return. It could be a start of something great - or a suicide mission.

Liars. Thieves. Rebels. Heroes?

Before I go my further, I need to stress something here and now: if you are expecting the TV show, you are going to be disappointed. While the TV show is quite dark, the book is much more romantic driven. It reminds me a bit of The Selection by Kiera Cass (my review for that is here). It is a fun, candy floss read.

But there are problems with this book. Well, for me, there were problems. Like I said, this is very romantic and it's hard to picture the idea of a sci-fi book, where the main characters are sent to Earth and are forced to survive with little to no idea on how to survive, that these characters beginning to fall for each other.

Another problem that I had - and I think most of bloggers that joint read this series had the same problem - is how the story was told. The book had four characters telling the story - Clarke, Bellamy, Wells and Glass - and they changed point of view every chapter. And within most of these chapters, we had flashbacks. It's hard to get attached to a character when you have to switch different points of view and then you have to switch from what's happening to them now to what happened to them several months earlier.

But my main problem is, while I enjoyed reading this (and I read this quite quickly) is that it felt half-baked. It had an good premise but it just felt flat at times. It reminded me of the new Doctor Who episode, Deep Breath, where you have several hugely interesting ideas but the ideas didn't blend together and make a good outcome. I'm sorry but you have a dinosaur running round Victorian London and yet...

I did like this, but it was a candy floss read for me. I have read Day 21, the sequel, and I have plans to watch the rest of the series but, I think I prefer the TV show than this book.