REVIEW: Subject A36

By Denise @ Life With No Plot on October 21, 2024 • ( 1 )

About the Book

Title: Subject A36

Author: Teri Polen

Series: The Colony #1

Genre: Dystopian

Pages: 194

Edition Read: NetGalley ARC

Dates Read: October 10-20, 2024

Blurb: If genetic engineering could guarantee you and your family perfect health and unparalleled beauty, would you pay top dollar for it? Would you kill for it?

Residents of the Colony would. And do.

Only the Insurgents can stop them.

Seventeen-year-old Asher Solomon is a premier operative with the Insurgents. He and his team have rescued countless hostages, saving them from painful deaths in Colony labs as desirable genetic traits are stripped from their bodies.

He’s also suffered more losses than anyone should have to.

Then Asher gets intel that might give his people the upper hand. The Colony is searching for Subject A36. If the Insurgents determine the subject’s identity first, they might be able to turn the tide of the war.

Asher and his team embark on their riskiest mission ever, and the stakes have never been higher. But even if he survives the physical dangers, the devastating secrets he uncovers might destroy him.

Review

You all know I really enjoy a good dystopian tale. I knew nothing about this book and very little about this author (except that she’s a fellow book blogger!). When she posted that it was free to read on NetGalley with all requests getting accepted, I jumped at the chance.

This book was very fast paced, and while it isn’t super long, it does pack quite a lot into those 190+ pages. It definitely kept you wanting to read and find out more. I really liked our main character. Asher is a fighter, but it’s his inner strength that is even more impressive. When you find out the truth about his background and realize the struggle he has to keep his identity, it’s really quite impressive. And heartbreaking.

The story world was interesting, although somewhat basic. The one thing I missed getting was any real backstory to the world. We know that the Colony is evil and the Insurgents are the ones trying to fight back and rescue the innocents, but we don’t really know how the world got to that point. Not that you always need that information, but it would have been nice to have. Speaking of the Colony, this was another thing that griped me just a bit – the villains of the story are very one dimensional, and since we get a few chapters told from one of their points of view, I expected to get a bit more about them and why they are what they are.

Speaking of points of view, this was another thing that wasn’t a bad part of the book, but was just a bit odd. The book is told in first person with most of the chapters from Asher’s point of view. There are, however, a handful of chapters that are told from other character’s POV – two from a side character’s POV and four from the main villain. It just seemed like a random choice and it did break down the flow of the story just a bit for me.

There is a second book in this series (which might just be a duology, it’s hard to tell), but I haven’t decided yet on whether I want to read it or not. This one did end on a fairly hefty cliffhanger, so I probably will. Just not right now.

GoodReads rating: 3 stars