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In the future Dystopian society of Cabal, the government instills equality for all and offers its citizens the perfect system. There is food, shelter and jobs for everyone. The one requirement is to follow the rules without question, including the government's match in marriage and "The Day of the Chosen", a lottery that randomly selects families to conceive children as natural means hasn't existed in generations. Following her eighteenth birthday, Olivia Parker accepts her requirement to marry her childhood best friend, Joshua Warren, and is eager to start her work assignment and new life when it all comes abruptly to an end as she's arrested and thrown in prison. The only crime committed, her existence. Olivia is unlike the rest of the world born not from "The Day of the Chosen." The truth haunts the government and puts her life in grave danger as one simple fact would destroy the perfect system. With Joshua's help, Olivia breaks free of prison and is forced on the run. Together they set out to find the promised rebel town in search of a new home and new life together. Their situation seems less than promising as they reach the town of Haven. New rules and customs must be adhered to in order to stay. Leaving would mean most certain death in the large expanse of the Gravelands. Time is running out as the government mounts an attack to destroy Olivia and bury her secret with her. Thrown into a world unlike their own, they must quickly adapt to survive.
Publication Year: 2013
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Oh, cover, you so pretty! Why you lie to meeee?
This book didn't really work for me and there are, on the surface, a lot of reasons why it should have. Firstly, because I love dystopians. And I also love mystery and intrigue. I love friends-to-lovers, and I love YA. What I don't love are books that feel like they're trying to cash in on a popular genre, rather than adding something new or dynamic to it.
ABERRANT tries to be everyone's friend. Kinda like those people you meet who seem to change and morph into a completely new personality right before your eyes depending on what crowd they're in or who they're speaking to, but otherwise seem devoid of their own authentic personality. Maybe they had one once, but they've been pretending to be so many other people for so long in order to fit in, they've forgotten.
You can't please all of the people all of the time. And you can't fool all of the people, either. Adding lots of different (and familiar) ideas from the dystopian genre all into one book, didn't make this the Über Dystopian the author was probably hoping for - the one that has it all, the best bits from all the bestsellers. No, no. It really didn't. It just made a mish mash, a hodge podge of different individual stories that did not, in any way, work as a whole.
As the characters moved from location to location it was like moving through each familiar book. "Oh, look! Now we're in the Hunger Games section!" Or like the author wasn't sure which story she wanted to tell, so she flitted and drifted and refused to settle on one idea. I haven't recapped the plot in my review for this very reason; it was too messy. It would take too long to explain all the little mini stories.
So, this one wasn't the book for me, sadly, but I did have oodles of fun .gif hunting, so... bygones.
2 Stars ★★
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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