When I learned that there was a book for the tv show "The 100", I wanted to get my hands on it right away because I absolutely love the show. The plots, the way relationships are written, the characters and how they have to adapt to survive had me from the pilot, so I was expecting the same thing from the book. Althought the main plot is basically the same, a 100 criminal kids are sent to Earth hundreds of years after a nuclear war that left the planet devastated to see it it was habitable again, everything else was different. Sure, the main characters are the same, but their personality is just a shadow of their tv counterpart, if not completely different.

Tv!Clarke is portrayed as strong willed, but kind and fair and she's always trying to do what's right and to ensure the other kids survival. And while she's still kinda like that, she comes off more like a lost girl, who is trying to do something but doesn't actually knows what she's doing and it's too focused on her boy trouble (loving Wells, hating him, forgiving him, feeling something for Bellamy and then back to Wells only to hate him again and so on). She lacks the leadership traits and the headstrong personality. Wells, despite being present on the show, is killed very early on, so we don't get to know him much except to know that he was Clarke's best friend but he betrayed her trying to help her because he is in love with her. Well, I'm kinda glad he wasn't around long, if his plot was supposed to follow the book. He is obsessed with Clarke and has this misguided sense of justice and superiority (because even though he says he's not like his father, he kind of is and believes he is supposed to be the leader). He is Finn, but much worse, because Finn was actually well developed and had this good guy personality in season one that was very likable. Octavia in the book is a little bit more like her tv counterpart, except less rebellious and strong. She comes off as sneaky and malicious, even though she puts on a cute and innocent face. I don't see her becoming warrior!Octavia at all. Bellamy is the one who is the most consistent one, just not imposing himself as much as in the tv show and therefore not developing much as a character, at least in this book. I miss Raven, Monty, Jasper and even Murphy (which is Graham in the book and much more obnoxious). I also miss Clarke's relationship with her mother and all that issued but I love Thalia and some of Clarke's backstory in the book (which also diverges from the show, but I actually like the book more in this aspect). I have mixed feelings for Glass. Despite liking to see a secondary character from the show come to life on her own in the book, her chapters were detached from the plot on Earth, it felt like reading a separate book, a YA romance.

Actually, this whole book was kind of an introduction to the main plot, the separate ones and the character's personality and backstory, because not much in terms of plot has happened so far, except in last 40 pages, when things start to move a little only for the book to end. There was more romance in it (poorly developed, I migh add - actually a major part of the relationships in the book are underdeveloped) than actual struggle to survive and to adapt to life on Earth for the 100 and to solve things and the political stuff on the Ark.

I kind of got involved in the book, it's a quick and easy read and I will continue with the series, but I do prefer the tv show and I want season 3 NOW. Well, at least in the books we get a little bit of Bellarke.