I received an ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
* * *
I was super impressed with this book! From the very first page, I was sucked into the story of intrigue and it kept me gripped until the very last page!
The Never Dawn follows Noah, a young man who works under the Earth, hoping to one day return to the surface and see the sky. But, after finding out a secret their leader has desperately tried to keep hidden, he decides to escape and find out what's really lurking on the surface.
The Never Dawn follows Noah, a young man who works under the Earth, hoping to one day return to the surface and see the sky. But, after finding out a secret their leader has desperately tried to keep hidden, he decides to escape and find out what's really lurking on the surface.
This book was full of great twists and turns and I'd definitely recommend it for any lovers of dystopian and sci-fi.
SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD
I'll start with the one main issue I had with this book before going into everything properly. And it wasn't ever a major issue- just something that grated on me a little. The irritating thing was just how naive everyone was. I understand to a certain extent that they've been brainwashed all their lives to believe in the Mother but Gods, how can anyone be that that ignorant?!? When Seth came along and started asking all these (perfectly valid) questions, I was so relieved!! Here we have a 13 year old who's smarter than everyone else! It baffles me that no one else had thought to ask these questions.
And, also, where the heck were all the adults in this book? We dealt with young, impressionable kids that the Mother could manipulate and a sensible adult with their heads screwed on straight could've really changed things. But, it makes you wonder as well about the world. What does happen to the adults? I hope that's something we learn in the next books.
Anyway, moving on.
We start the book with going through the motions of a very repetitive day that we see a whole lot of. While I originally thought this may get a little boring, it didn't! I was sucked in by all the intrigue and all the questions I had, a growing fountain of them that got bigger with every chapter. It was like this massive mystery I had to solve and I enjoyed trying to piece together all the bits of information to see how they'd fit into the overruling arc of the story.
I generally liked Noah as a protagonist. Aside from his naivety, blind ignorance and borderline obsessive fascination with Rebekeh, he was interesting to follow and thankfully began to question the Mother's actions. With days and a structure so repetitive and limited, it was hard to really get a feel for the personality of the protagonist but curiosity, loyalty and determination were traits that really shone in Noah. And, honestly, I would argue that the whole point of this world created was for distinguishable personalities to purposefully be difficult to find- the Mother has created this society where everyone's sole purpose is to work and not be selfish- of course it'd be difficult to differentiate personality traits when they've all been conditioned to be the same sort of person.
We get introduced to the idea of 'the meeting place' pretty early and I have no clue why my initial guess was spot on. It just immediately felt like it'd be something to do with pairing off the workers and... it was just as uncomfortable to read as I thought it'd be. It also baffled me how clueless everyone actually was- Abraham really didn't know or ever guess that he'd stopped seeing his match because she'd obviously become pregnant?!? It's too cringey to even think about.
After a few notes had been exchanged, Rebekeh snuck Noah out at night and, I will say, it was painfully obvious that Rebekeh had been the one to have the book and write all the vandalism but it was all a shock to Naive Noah (as every single possible thing was). I'm a little annoyed that Seth and some others took the blame for Rebekeh's actions, mainly because Seth was the only sane kid around. But we haven't seen the last of Seth, I'm sure of it. He'll be back eventually.
Rebekeh tells Noah how she dreams of leaving this place and seeing the sky... just like everyone else's dream, but at least she looks a little more inclined to fight for it than any of the others. I swear, Noah spends the whole time of their first secret meeting thinking about getting into her pants and his romantic obsession with Rebekeh is kinda weird considering he doesn't really know her at all. Sure they've exchanged some pretty heated.... glances but, it's hardly true love. And, honestly, I kind of love how Rebekeh fights him off when he kisses her that first time. Noah's built it up in his delusional head that they're gonna end up together and (while that's 99% likely to actually happen) it's a bit expectant. When he just kissed her, assuming she wanted it too, I was all too happy that she kicked his ass.
After a couple more secret meetings, they take their next chance to escape completely. We start the gruelling monotony of climbing and it felt like it took forever. They kept saying how they'd try to make it back by morning so no one would notice they'd been gone but, from how long it felt like they were climbing, I thought it'd been taking them days to climb to the top! When they finally reach 'the top', we have this lovely scene where they're relishing in what they think is the surface of the earth and... that's where plot twists kept blowing my mind and my mouth fell open and stayed that way until the last page.
When it was revealed they'd been seeing different things I actually gasped out loud. My stomach kind of dropped as if I was on a roller-coaster and everything suddenly felt so much more sinister. It was like I'd just walked into a blind trap and I was having a little bit of an 'oh, shit' panicky moment. I genuinely thought the Mother or someone was gonna burst in on them and take them hostage.
With a little more climbing and exploring, we find out that they're really in space! I was not expecting this kind of twist at all- dystopian turned sci-fi!
They climb back down and when morning comes, it's the 13th and they've missed an entire day. Frankly, I'd be more surprised if they hadn't missed a day because they were climbing for ages. Don't even try to tell me it was only a few hours- it had to be longer.
I'll start with the one main issue I had with this book before going into everything properly. And it wasn't ever a major issue- just something that grated on me a little. The irritating thing was just how naive everyone was. I understand to a certain extent that they've been brainwashed all their lives to believe in the Mother but Gods, how can anyone be that that ignorant?!? When Seth came along and started asking all these (perfectly valid) questions, I was so relieved!! Here we have a 13 year old who's smarter than everyone else! It baffles me that no one else had thought to ask these questions.
And, also, where the heck were all the adults in this book? We dealt with young, impressionable kids that the Mother could manipulate and a sensible adult with their heads screwed on straight could've really changed things. But, it makes you wonder as well about the world. What does happen to the adults? I hope that's something we learn in the next books.
We start the book with going through the motions of a very repetitive day that we see a whole lot of. While I originally thought this may get a little boring, it didn't! I was sucked in by all the intrigue and all the questions I had, a growing fountain of them that got bigger with every chapter. It was like this massive mystery I had to solve and I enjoyed trying to piece together all the bits of information to see how they'd fit into the overruling arc of the story.
I generally liked Noah as a protagonist. Aside from his naivety, blind ignorance and borderline obsessive fascination with Rebekeh, he was interesting to follow and thankfully began to question the Mother's actions. With days and a structure so repetitive and limited, it was hard to really get a feel for the personality of the protagonist but curiosity, loyalty and determination were traits that really shone in Noah. And, honestly, I would argue that the whole point of this world created was for distinguishable personalities to purposefully be difficult to find- the Mother has created this society where everyone's sole purpose is to work and not be selfish- of course it'd be difficult to differentiate personality traits when they've all been conditioned to be the same sort of person.
After a few notes had been exchanged, Rebekeh snuck Noah out at night and, I will say, it was painfully obvious that Rebekeh had been the one to have the book and write all the vandalism but it was all a shock to Naive Noah (as every single possible thing was). I'm a little annoyed that Seth and some others took the blame for Rebekeh's actions, mainly because Seth was the only sane kid around. But we haven't seen the last of Seth, I'm sure of it. He'll be back eventually.
Rebekeh tells Noah how she dreams of leaving this place and seeing the sky... just like everyone else's dream, but at least she looks a little more inclined to fight for it than any of the others. I swear, Noah spends the whole time of their first secret meeting thinking about getting into her pants and his romantic obsession with Rebekeh is kinda weird considering he doesn't really know her at all. Sure they've exchanged some pretty heated.... glances but, it's hardly true love. And, honestly, I kind of love how Rebekeh fights him off when he kisses her that first time. Noah's built it up in his delusional head that they're gonna end up together and (while that's 99% likely to actually happen) it's a bit expectant. When he just kissed her, assuming she wanted it too, I was all too happy that she kicked his ass.
After a couple more secret meetings, they take their next chance to escape completely. We start the gruelling monotony of climbing and it felt like it took forever. They kept saying how they'd try to make it back by morning so no one would notice they'd been gone but, from how long it felt like they were climbing, I thought it'd been taking them days to climb to the top! When they finally reach 'the top', we have this lovely scene where they're relishing in what they think is the surface of the earth and... that's where plot twists kept blowing my mind and my mouth fell open and stayed that way until the last page.
With a little more climbing and exploring, we find out that they're really in space! I was not expecting this kind of twist at all- dystopian turned sci-fi!
They climb back down and when morning comes, it's the 13th and they've missed an entire day. Frankly, I'd be more surprised if they hadn't missed a day because they were climbing for ages. Don't even try to tell me it was only a few hours- it had to be longer.
This was such a great ending because I finished the last page being terrified for these characters in a heart-in-my-throat kind of way which always shows the sign of a good book. I can't wait to see the fallout of what they've discovered and what happens next.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe
No comments:
Post a Comment