BOOK REVIEW - UNWANTED by AMANDA HOLOHAN - YA DYSTOPIAN - PENGUIN AUSTRALIA

By: Amanda Holohan

Published By: Penguin Aust

Released : Available Now

Details: Paperback from publisher for honest review

RATING: 3.75 STARS!

Blurb: Goodreads

All her life, eighteen-year-old Bea has wanted nothing more than to become a sniper on the wall and earn the coveted ink of a Dread warrior - a mark of distinction among her people.

She knows that one day the terrifying Erebii might break through the city's outer defences, and if her people aren't prepared and the wall is breached then the last human city will fall.

But everything Bea thinks she knows is about to be challenged...

What does the ink really do as it flows underneath their skin and who is the mysterious Unwanted boy that keeps appearing in her life?

BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:

I love reading YA dystopians and I also love reading Australian authors. I’m an honest reviewer so this is just my one personal opinion.

I want to start by saying I thought Amanda's writing was lovely, now here comes the tough part for me because I really wanted to love this book because virtually the moment it rocked up on my doorstep I opened it up. I was excited to read it.

Bea is a new Dread Warrior. I really liked the whole idea of Dread Warriors ( they have dreadlocks ) and this being the last city on Erth. No, that wasn’t a spell error.

I liked the idea for this dystopian. I think I needed Bea to be much more fleshed out for me to identify with her. She is a trained fighter but I didn't really feel that she was used much to show us this. 

I felt like the story was a bit patchy and I found Red solved situations too easily. He would come along and things happened with relative ease. I thought he was like the solution guy. He knew everything and how to get about, it made for Bea's adventure into discovery very two dimensional. I felt like she had her own tour guide.

I could see the well of potential in Unwanted, but it missed the mark in several places for me.

I understood why Amanda kept Red slowly feeding Bea information because it kept the story moving, but I kinda figured some things out there, especially when we were shown something fairly early on when it came to a Stork. I felt Red could have connected with the reader better. He was a great character but he didn’t grab me. I so wanted him to grab me and for me to feel excited about him.

Gus was another character who I would call one of the three main characters, but there was a lack of connection there for me as the reader too. I felt like Amanda was trying to make a subtle love triangle but it simply wasn't there. I'm still a bit unsure of what was going on there. Nothing actually went on, but I felt like I was supposed to feel something. I would have loved to have had a deeper connection with him. I liked him, but...

One thing that totally had me going WT!! Was when Bea told Gus she loved him.

Man, WT!? I was a little confuzzed by that comment. Now if you read this book you will understand why I said that. I did this weird whiplash thing when I read that. There was no real basis for that comment to be blurted out of Bea.

I thought Amanda’s idea was a really cool one, but in my one personal opinion I think it lacked in grabbing me as the reader and taking me along on Bea’s ride.

This is why I say it has a well of potential. Again, some readers may simply love it the way it is, and that is totally cool.

I feel like there was meant to be an attraction between Red and Bea but it was simply not spelled out properly.

If I was to be asked if there was a romance in this book, I would say no. Gus certainly showed his interest in Bea but she was off doing her thing, sure they had some wall moments and spent a little time together, but you gotta be present to have a thing.

I did LOVE the twist that came with this book as I think it is very hard to pick it and that is a double-thumbs-up for me.

I felt like at times it was a bit hard turning the pages because I needed more excitement or some romance or more flowing of story line. Don't get me wrong, Amanda uses Bea's sisters and other Dread Warriors and other characters, I liked Jim, but...

Owl Vaughn could have been used better I thought too. I know why he wasn't in the book much, but it kinda felt forced when he popped back up. He was like the start and the end.

I felt like there could have been a lot more suspense to this read considering what I know at the end and also it is a dystopian and they should come with kickass action and suspense.

These are just my honest thoughts and I am a well read reviewer. I really wanted to like this book and I feel terribly bad that it didn’t connect with me.

I gave this book a bit more than I was intending because visually through Amanda’s writing I could see in my head her world, nice enough, but I just wanted to shake the whole story and its characters up a bit. 

Michelle