Review: Aberrant (Aberrant #1) by Ruth Silver
What do you get when you combine Divergent with The Hunger Games and sprinkle in a little Captain America?
Aberrant.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines Aberrant as: adj. Departing from an accepted standard; Diverging from the normal type. I was quite surprised to find that this book fit that definition very well, to the point where it stood out among a genre that is overflowing with options to choose from and made itself different. We meet Olivia in the city of Genesis, a town that was set up as a breeding city after the 4th world war and a plague decimated most of the world and left the population unable to conceive naturally.
At least that's what they all think.
Enter Olivia Parker, 18 year old daughter of a widow, on her matching ceremony day. Nervous just like the rest of her class to find out who the government has chosen her to spend the rest of her life with within her own graduating lot. 18 years old and terrified of what's gong to happened, Olivia is matched with Joshua Warren, there are worse things than being paired with your best friend since the age of 5 so thins seem to be looking up, until she is arrested hours later by the governor and thrown in jail....
What for you may ask?
Olivia is the only person on the earth that can conceive. Her mother boar her and now everyone thinks that has been passed to her. The government wants her either dead or in one of their labs, but Joshua's mother helps them escape to a town outside of Genesis named Haven, a city part of the Rebel Alliance trying to rise up against government control. The feelings of relief and freedom soon evaporates when the plans of the Rebel Alliance are spelled out for Olivia, but what does this mean for her and her future? And what does it means for her feelings towards Joshua? Will they stay in Haven? Will the government find her?
SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! I'm sorry but I'm not going to answer ANY of them because YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK! I'm going to give you the main reason I feel this way.
Main. Female. Lead.
I loved Olivia. What I require for me to like a main character, strength, poise, a little vulnerability and resolve, she possess. I felt like she never wavered from what she thought was right and what she wanted. Yes, plans changed a number of times but although the grander scheme shifted almost from page to page, at the core of the story was one girl who might be special but really lead with her heart first and foremost and then with her head. It worked for me, she didn't just do things for a boy and she didn't turn her back on anyone for the greater cause, Olivia balanced out what was right and moral or what she felt was her duty with this new found freedom of doing things her way or what she wanted to do not what everyone else told her to do. That is BRILLIANT. A girl who can stand on her own two feet and still love someone in a natural and not-immediate manner? WE NEED MORE OF THIS IN LITERATURE.
Olivia Parker sold the book for me, but I really did love the whole package. You get a clear picture of what world these characters are living in and that world is massive. Not only do you have government and rebels and gravelands (the nasty open deserts between cities) but you can see the clear distinction of environments as it changes. Taking great characters and putting them into a complete setting is not something that is easily found and this book has it! Add in all the unique things that you'll find scattered everywhere within the story and it made Aberrant one of my favorite books of the year, I CAN NOT WAIT for a sequel!!!
Originally Posted: http://thebookblogattheendoftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2013/06/review-blog-tour-giveaway-aberrant-by.html
