Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage—and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

In her enthralling debut, Veronica Rossi sends readers on an unforgettable adventure set in a world brimming with harshness and beauty.

 What I liked:  

In the dystopian genre, I think that we tend to get pigeon-holed into certain traits of the leading female and male.  Most of the time they are naive girls who are just ‘coming of age’ and yet they are thrown into these situations where they are forced to act as adults, and save the world.  usually it’s because of a family member that’s been taken from them – and usually they find out that they’ve got some super strength or genius.  That’s kind of the case here for Aria, however what i found that i really enjoyed was that we get the sense that all the people that live in these protective Pods are genetically enhanced – but maybe things aren’t quite what they seem.  Throughout the story, we don’t get more than what’s expected of Aria, until there’s a nice surprise about 2/3 of the way through.  Regardless of that, she’s just a teenage girl, traveling with a teenage boy – that’s definitely more of a man.

So onto the man – Perry – what i really like about him is that he knows what he knows and he knows what he doesn’t.  he’s got this sense of authority, yet he knows that you can’t just take it from someone who has the power.  he’s an amazing family guy, a devoted and loyal friend and the kind of guy that i’d want to have around me if i ever got exiled from an environment that was safe and put out with the ‘savages’

I also adore Roar – who wouldn’t love a guy with that name.  he’s the light side of things that we really need and he’s supposedly quite handsome which would make for a great role in a movie.  I also like Cinder – and that we never quite get to know his story.  he’s dark and mysterious and has this power that no one gets or understands where it comes from.

That brings us to the ‘magical power’ section of this book.  I’m used to reading dystopian genre stories where people are enhanced and they have these super strengths or powers.  what we get in this story is partially that (but a minor part), a bit of evolution (meaning that people lose big parts of themselves because their environment has taken away the need) and some type of magical super power legacy that we’re not quite sure where it starts.

All this together, tied to anxiety and suspense of people out to get Aria and Perry during their travels (out to get translates to ‘trying to kill’) and then your usual teen romantic feelings (among a bunch of folks actually) turns this into a great story.

What i also really liked is that where this story ends up, it’s not final, but it’s not ambiguous.  you know that things have to change for all our mains, yet you don’t know what the implications will be.  you don’t know where they’ll end up, which friends will stay together, and what it means for civilization (both inside the pods and as an outsider).

so what i want to know:

1) do they find Liv

2) do they find the Still Blue

3) who is Aria’s father

4) what happens to the Tides

5) do they find the root of the Aether storms and how to control them

6) what’s Cinder’s story

7) do we get to see more of Marron?  I adore him!

happy reading all – i’m off to finish the novella between books 1 and 2 now.