Synopsis:
It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever.
Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune.
Midori believes it's her way out of her restrained life in Japan.
Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space... no one is coming to save them.
Thoughts:
I'm not quite sure what to think of this book. There are many parts of it that I have an issue with, but the good parts were good.
THE PLOT
I know that when reading any book, we have to suspend disbelief. Many things that take place in any book are completely unrealistic, but the events of this book seemed overly unrealistic. The very premise of sending teenagers to the moon is laughable - in real life there are tons and tons of things that an astronaut must go through before they get sent into space. Even though I genuinely enjoyed the book, it took awhile for me to get past this point.
As for the pacing, it took about half the novel before I really got into it. I started becoming genuinely interested around the time that they finally took off to go to the moon. The first half of the book seemed to drag - too much time spent addressing why the teenagers entered the contest to the moon (which are all stupid reasons, more about that below) and very limited information about what training they went through (which also seemed pretty unrealistic). The second half of the book though was extremely entertaining. I don't want to give too much away about it, but almost immediately upon arrival on the moon everything turns to hell. It's also around this point that the story starts to get incredibly creepy. As I was listening to the audiobook half of me wanted to run away while the other half wanted to keep listening. Maybe I just scare easy, but it seemed to be a pretty popular opinion so I don't think I'm the only one creeped out by this book.
THE CHARACTERS
One major problem for me during this book is that I genuinely did not like any of the characters. I didn't find any of them particularly likeable and many seemed very one-dimensional. The reasons why the three teens decided to go to the moon are all incredibly stupid. Mia wanted exposure for her band, Midori wanted an excuse to move to New York, and Antoine just wanted to get away from his girlfriend. All very good reasons to put your life at risk and go to the moon, am I right? (NOT) There was also a small romance that seemed very awkward and unnecessary as well as insta-lovey (which is one of my biggest pet peeves).
FINAL COMMENTS
I debated for awhile trying to figure out what to rate this book. I do have issues with many aspects of this book, but I absolutely loved the second half! I was on the edge of my seat throughout most of the second half and was thoroughly entertained.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment