Thursday 17 May 2012

Book Review-Tomorrow Land by Mari Mancusi


Tomorrow LandTitle: Tomorrow Land
 Author: Mari Mancusi
Series:  N/A
Published:  8 March 2012
Length: 281 pages
Warnings: violence, drugs, sex references 13+
Source: Netgalley
Other info: Mari has also written the Blood Coven (Boys that Bite) series, and some others
Summary : Can true love survive the end of the world? Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice--between her family--and Chris Parker, the boy she'd given her heart. Now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he's the only thing on her mind. All Chris "Chase" Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed--breaking his heart without ever telling him why. Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones to a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk...and feed. As they begin their pilgramage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost--all while attempting to save what's left of the human race?
Review: April 2030. Peyton Anderson is with her friends, discussing boys, as any fifteen year old does. that’s how it is most of the time. and then her dad starts going on about stuff from an old sci-fi book. And people start getting sick. And sick. And dead. And not deader. Fast forwards four years. Chase, formerly Chris, Parker, does what he has to do to survive. only just. So when the girl he’s had a crush on for four years returns and suggests they run away, after careful thinking, he agrees/ even if the girl does now have weird eyes. even if the girl does now have retractable razor blades in her fingers. even if it does mean travelling across a zombie-ridden USA
This is one of those books where if forgot what was meant to happen, so I kind of went in blind. Which made things a bit confusing to start with. Each alternative chapter is set in the pre=outbreak, in which Peyton is fifteen, and Chris is Chris, and every other chapter is post-outbreak, in which Peyton has her implants. While both are nice, it takes me a fair bit of time to realise that they alternated timescales, how they intertwined, and the pattern.
The world building for both pre-and post-outbreak is really good. The pre- is your kind of typical view of the future, wildly advanced with computers  and references to pop culture scattered in. The post-outbreak world is totally different. Mari does a great job of describing the changes and conditions of this new world.
I liked before-Peyton. She wasn’t standout, but she was a good character. After-Peyton, I had a bit of a problem wth. Her personality was great, but the blades and the eyes...how did they get in? How do they not cut her? I can’t see it happening.
Chris is a good character. I didn’t really like him that much before the outbreak, but after the four year timeskip, you can see how much he’s been forced to mature and is now able to cope-just about. I don’t blame him for getting addicted.
Plot turns range from the “interesting and useful” to the “too convenient for them”. I get the need for them to go, but some things seem a little too easy.
The ending...the ending was just...anti climatic. I was looking forwards to some big dramatic showdown, which we kind of got, but it wasn’t as interesting as the rest of the book had set it up to be.
Despite this, there was something about Tomorrow Land which makes me want to see more form Mari.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that varies with quality depending on where you are in the novel.

1 comment:

  1. I didn't like this book quite as much as you did. I like their relationship before, but couldn't stand it after.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking time to read this!
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Nina xxx

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