I recieved The Reader* by MK Harkins as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.
Within this world, alongside humans there are also ‘readers’, ‘jacks’ and the now extinct ‘seers’. When Ann meets two young readers as she washes ashore with amnesia, she takes their protection and follows them back to the reader compound. After Ann is all healed and starting to settle, she is told she may be the lost one. The one who is going to bring about the great war between jacks and readers.
I really enjoyed the premise of the book. Readers, jacks and seers are modified humans with special niche talents, which brings with it resentment between races and war. With the extinction of the seers, and the prediction of the fall of one of the other races, time is ticking. This plot could have accomplished so much but unfortunately it seemed rushed and lacked the depth needed to keep my attention.
There was a lot of action in the book, but not really a lot of details. Characters were seemingly created to dump information. This lack of development irked me. I really liked Devon’s sister Lucy and I would have loved to see more interaction, but she was there to give Ann the information needed more than anything else.
Ann’s destined love which leads to the catastrophic war was another issue, it could have been explored so much more. The resolution of the foretold love happened fast, and as such, I had no emotional feelings towards it. For scenarios like this to work, I need to either want the couple together or despise them together. There’s no space for middle ground, I should want to route for these characters.
The predictability of the rest of the plot line was enraging at times. Yes, I know its a YA book, but does it have to use so many tropes? Set up straight away was the love triangle. Then, immediately after, you knew exactly who Ann would end up with. The big finale which is anticipated, but also forewarned by the characters, fell completely flat. It just didn’t happen and so all the build up was wasted. Expectations plummeted. Disappointment was high.
As I said before, the premise is good. Just, not for an approximately 200 page book. A longer book, as part of a longer series would definitely catch my interest. Being able to have the word count to properly develop the world, the characters, the emotions and dig deeper would entice me so much more.
