I’m going to be honest here. I don’t have much to add on this book. There is very little that hasn’t been said about almost every other dystopian novel (dystopian Hunger Games, Maze Runner). Okay, so if you’re a big fan reading the same thing every time, then sure this isn’t exactly a negative book review, but more of a summary; however, if you hate sparse world-building then this is not your new favorite.

The young adult novel business is a money mill that can only go on for so long. We suffered through the vampire hysteria following the rocketing popularity of Twilight. Soon, authors rushed to get the next vampire book out on shelves. Next, Hunger Games mania plagued us and not long after we have bedroom loads of dystopian books. If The Forsaken had been published during the Hunger Games gold rush, it would have been an entertaining book, but we all know how these stories go.

In The Forsaken, nothing is explained, but first let me give a synopsis. In The Forsaken, Canada, United States, and Mexico have united to form the UNA (oh, I’m aware of all the political jokes we could make about this), which is run by a supreme dictator who controls all aspects of life. When teens turn sixteen, they are injected with a serum that scans their brains to detect any treasonous tendencies. Our heroine, Alenna, is determined to be an “unanchored soul” and shipped off, or rather dropped into, ‘The Wheel’ –an island where would-be criminals are deposited and left to their own devices. Alenna soon discovers that the island is at war, fighting over territory. Yes, all this unfolds in a Lord of the Flies-type manner.

I’m actually not opposed to that idea. I mean less people means a smaller crowd at In-N-Out, but in the novel everyone is starving. It’s just not really explained why the starkly different countries seamlessly unified in the first place. Like, “hey we’re starving and you’re starving, so let’s all starve together?” Is that the author’s thought process? And somehow this would solve the issue of starvation, and I’m over here thinking “okaaaay”.

The two major problems, for me, were: the plausibility gap, and the characterizations. This is a world where people have “earpieces” (implants, I’m going to assuming, because it’s never explained) that blast classical music, in which people are under mind control (cue X-Files’ theme song) by the government via pills that are taken each day. Now, maybe this is just me, but if the Government started making people take pills that noticeably dulled their thinking–as the UNA does–wouldn’t more people simply not know to take the pills? Once we get to ‘The Wheel’–as it is known to the locals–we are introduced to a whole slew of ridiculous nomenclature. ‘The Wheel’ has been separated into two main regions – the Villagers, and the MONK and his DRONES. There’s also a strange sickness, but the locals refuse to call it a sickness:

I feel light-headed. “They all look so sick.”

Gadya flinches. “Don’t use that word.”

“‘Sick’?”

“Yeah. Veidman doesn’t like it. Says it causes panic. That’s why we call them the Ones Who Suffer.”

Yes. Because that, my friends, is so much better.

 Despite, being thrusted onto a Lord of the Flies type situation, you know there’s always, always, always time to squeeze in some lovin’ (disapproval intensifies.). If you haven’t guessed already, romance seems to be some type of requirement for young adult books to be published. Of course, the romance did nothing and in the same vein the “I feel oddly drawn to him for some reason” needs to die. Is it so wrong to write “I.am.attracted.to.this.person.”? Give me solid reasons, not this unexplained attraction nonsense.

It’s not worth the 15 AR pts (bl: 4.5). Just go read a textbook, because at least it actually explains things.