True Calling Review by Siobhan Davis
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Yo Guys!
Joe here with a new review for you all! :D
Sorry about being quiet, I’ve been really really busy with Uni studies and such (aiming for a first haha!)
Sorry about being quiet, I’ve been really really busy with Uni studies and such (aiming for a first haha!)
Today I will be reviewing a book called ‘True Calling’ by
Siobhan Davis.
Here’s some of the blurb to to get you intrigued:
Planet
Novo, nestled in space twelve hundred miles above the surface of the Earth, is
the new home of 17-year-old Cadet Ariana Skyee. Confused by the
government-sanctioned memory erase and distressed at her impending forced
marriage and motherhood, Ariana’s plans for the future are thrown into complete
disarray.
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I was given an e-book copy of this book in return for an
honest review.
Slight
Spoilers and Swearing
This was not my book. It really wasn’t.
There were quite a few things in this book that didn’t sit
right with me.
When Earth started to die, a new government decided to send
humans onto an artificial planet called Novo, that they created twelve hundred
miles above Earth. Ariana lives with her family and many other humans who were
selected and moved to Novo; humans were selected to live on Novo by their
medical records, their criminal records and their work/school records. So if
you were a convict or had a critical medical condition, you would’ve had to
stay on Earth’s destructed remains.
Ariana lives a ‘normal’ life; she goes to school, has
friends, a family that loves her; but this all changes when she starts dreaming
of a strange man named Zane; her father goes missing and the hottest guy in the
school starts showing an interest in Ariana.
Okay, so, I have so many little queries with this story and
overall I just didn’t enjoy it.
I really wasn’t impressed by the idea of taking young people and
setting them into arranged marriages when they turn 17/18. It has a good idea
for a story, but the way the author wrote it made it a bit silly and not really
that tense.
The fact that humanity chose to save only a small percentage of human
kind based on their clean records, good grades and good health; seems very
elitist.
I mainly disagree with this because what if there was someone in a
prison who had great grades, amazing health and the perfect genes but was only
pushed back by the reason he shoplifted when he was sixteen. There really is an
great amount of elitism and backwards methods in this book and I hope that it
can slowly disintegrate or manipulate it in some way.
The story wasn’t that immersive either; the build up was
lacking yet there were points where it could’ve been ramped up a notch, but it
just wasn’t.
The world building felt slightly messy and quickly written;
it generally didn’t feel like there was much creative input invested into the
planning of it other than a young girl on a new planet in love with two guys
and she had to chose which one she loved.
I didn’t understand how Novo was built in secret, I
understand how it can be classified documents from the public, but you’d think
they’d notice the giant planet being built next door? I probably missed
something in the book but I really didn’t understand it.
This book really focused on shock factor for the reader’s
attention; such things as love triangles, family struggles are okay but then
the author added in a part about the government outlawing homosexuals and
anything to do with homosexuality or any type of sexuality apart from
heterosexual relationships…
I rolled my eyes and wanted to throw my kindle down and
never touch the book again.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DISCRIMINATE SEXUAL ORIENTATION’S TO MAKE
A GOOD BOOK.
The author literally made it so that the book could continue
and the story could progress; so that Ariana and Cal could break Cal’s best
friend out of jail for him to get to the rebels to get Ariana and Cal to
safety.
Fuck.
Characters:
The characters in this book are pretty wooden, generic and
very ‘Perfect’.
Ariana starts off as a strong, independent woman (sorry) who
literally has the perfect life and is really cool in my opinion!
She’s pretty well written… until the love triangles happen and she just becomes this whiny little girl who pines for her lover and for the man she has no memories of.
She’s pretty well written… until the love triangles happen and she just becomes this whiny little girl who pines for her lover and for the man she has no memories of.
I don’t see her
as this strong, powerful character that other reviews are chorusing her to be.
Cal is the popular, outspoken, beautiful boy who captures all the
girls’ attention.
He’s the cocky, arrogant kid in class who always has something to
say.
I really don’t
like the idea of this character, especially when Arianna’s best friend stated
how Cal might only be rude to Ariana because he fancied her.
Right okay topic time; I do not understand the need for difference
between books written with a male or a female protagonist. The books with male
protagonists normally either have literally no love interest or go into a
complete fucking Harem (A story were a guy has multiple girls wanting him, but
he only wants one… or two)
Then when we go into a book with a female protagonist we see endless
lines of guys that SHE fancies and that SHE wants and it seems that they either
always get heartbroken, the dude dies/sacrifices himself or the dude isn’t in
love them; I find it to be a bit of bullshit honestly.
I mean; I’m all for freedom of choices and such, but there comes a
point where it becomes a literally guideline that YA authors and sometimes in
general ALL authors find and think ‘THAT WOULD BE GOOD YES’ no, not atal - They
start off creating an awesome character who is really badass and then the male love interests come in and it drives the Female protagonist
to look like some damsel in distress who only does these things for the
attention or the acceptance of the guy she’s doing it for.
Rant over.
Fuck. (This
isn’t just a straight jab at the author; I literally mean this with all YA
authors)
The
relationships were borderline boring and borderline-almost-kind-of-sort-of
realistic; they were very fantasy like.
The action in
this book was utterly overshadowed by unneeded emotion.
The book to me
wasn’t great.
I didn’t enjoy
it as much as I thought I would’ve and I’m quite saddened by that.
Thank you too the author for sending me this book.
Thank you too the author for sending me this book.
I don’t have
anything else to say guys…
I’ll catch you
on the flip side, guys.
See ya later.
Joe :)
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