| Review | The Vestige | Caroline George

Hello book-nerds!
How are you today? Let's talk a little about a a sci-fi book, shall we?




Synopsis:

Choose to see the unseen...

Julie Stryker has spent her life in the scenic streets of Charleston, South Carolina, bicycling to the local college, working at a coffeehouse, watching her family fall apart and back together. She has plans, dreams—all of which seem out of reach. Then she meets a handsome stranger at work, and she believes her life is on the brink of a much needed change. But after a tragic accident, Julie is whisked away from the only home she’s ever known and confronted with a life-altering secret: The end of the world has already occurred and a portion of humankind has been kept oblivious.

Tossed into a hidden world of deception, Julie must confront the truth within herself and reveal the government’s layers before the end of the world becomes a permanent reality.

1st Layer: What you can see.

2nd Layer: What you know is real.

3rd Layer: What you can neither see nor know is real.

Review:

The author of The Vestige is very smart because, at least when I discovered this book, everyone was talking about it, and everyone was saying nice things. So of course I was interested.

I read this while still on exams, having been given a e-copy by the author, I read it a little everyday before going to sleep, just to clear my mind of everything I had to memorize (honestly guys, don’t go to biology).

I went into this world with quite a lot of expectations, The Vestige readers were madly in love with these characters and so the hype, for me, was real.

Unfortunately, it was one of those books that did not live up to the hype.

Caroline’s writing reminds me of Tahereh Mafi’s it pulls you into the story effortlessly with that poetry like way of narrating and contemplating life that’s it’s just beautiful.

However, I found the characters lacking. Relationships develop too quickly. Our protagonist meet and they’re already feeling stuff and then they agree to be friends but are always falling out of line. Gah, it just fell like the most used cliché ever.

Of all the characters, I liked Julie’s brother the best. He seemed the most consistent, while everyone else jumped between states, either feeling confident and kicking ass or feeling miserable and almost dying, he was constant. On the other spectrum, Julie, for me, was not believable. She jumps from scared to trained sniper way too quickly.

Another problem I had, was how quickly characters appeared only to say something and die. You just don’t create a connection with them and that impacts your reading experience.

However, the story was very well woven together, making sense from beginning to end. If you value writing and plot more than characters, you’ll probably enjoy this way more than I did. Because characters for me make the story and I will very hardly connect with a plot if I don’t connect with the characters.

Rating: 3 stars.

Are you familiar with Caroline's writing? Or this story?

Are you sci-fi reader?

Let me know in the comments!