Nemesis by Brendan ReichsPublished: March 21, 2017
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Hardcover Pages: 443
Synopsis: He killed me. He killed me not. He killed me.
It’s been happening since Min was eight. Every two years, on her birthday, a strange man finds her and murders her in cold blood. But hours later, she wakes up in a clearing just outside her tiny Idaho hometown—alone, unhurt, and with all evidence of the horrifying crime erased.
Across the valley, Noah just wants to be like everyone else. But he’s not. Nightmares of murder and death plague him, though he does his best to hide the signs. But when the world around him begins to spiral toward panic and destruction, Noah discovers that people have been lying to him his whole life. Everything changes in an eye blink.
For the planet has a bigger problem. The Anvil, an enormous asteroid threatening all life on Earth, leaves little room for two troubled teens. Yet on her sixteenth birthday, as she cowers in her bedroom, hoping not to die for the fifth time, Min has had enough. She vows to discover what is happening in Fire Lake and uncovers a lifetime of lies: a vast conspiracy involving the sixty-four students of her sophomore class, one that may be even more sinister than the murders.
Thoughts: Nemesis starts off at a breakneck pace, with mysteries abounding about why Min has been killed every other year since she was eight, why she always comes back, and just who the strange man in the suit is that does the killing. The story makes you wonder just who is involved and what it all means, which is a great way to keep a reader engrossed. On top of all that, there is the threat of a life-ending asteroid on its way to hit the Earth, heightening tensions throughout the small town where Min lives.
Min herself is a strong female character who is pretty easy to get behind. She wants to figure out what's happening to her, and starts going to great lengths to do so. The other two main characters, Tack and Noah, are not quite as engaging as Min. Noah is like Min, in that he also is killed every two years, though he thinks he's just having dreams. Thinking he's crazy has made him pull away from life and hardly ever elicit his true opinion on anything, or take action when he knows something to be wrong. The third main character is Min's best friend Tack, who in many ways is the opposite of Noah, shooting his mouth off without thinking of the consequences at nearly every turn.
Bigger than not really liking Noah or Tack is that about halfway through the book, everything changes, and not for the better. You may want answers in the beginning, but once they start coming, they are, let's just say, not that satisfying. There's also this whole subplot with a bully, and I don't know, guys, bullies just get exhausting after awhile. Especially when they end up being as extreme as this one is. And on top of that, a bunch of random new characters start being introduced about halfway through, yet they do hardly anything at all, so it's just like... why? Why bother with all the descriptors for them.
Overall, the book starts off really well, but it ends in kind of a fizzle for me, to the point where it was a bit tough to get through. It's the first in what is supposed to be a trilogy, but I don't know that I'll continue. I just ended up feeling frustrated at what could have been.
Rating: 2.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment