Title: The subjects.
Author: Sarah Hopkins.
Format: E-ARC (Thanks to Edelweiss, all opinions are my own!)
Publisher: Text Publishing Company
Page count: 304.
Release day: August 11th 2020.
Genre: Adult, science-fiction.
Rating: 2.5 stars.
What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)
As we got closer I could see behind the sandstone a curved concrete building: a purpose-built structure. But still no fence, no wire. Not a bar in sight. For this, I’d been told that morning, I should be grateful. This was a ‘lifeline…a last chance’. That is what the judge said.
Daniel is a sixteen-year-old drug dealer and he’s going to jail.
Then, suddenly, he’s not.
A courtroom intervention. A long car ride to a big country house. Other ‘gifted delinquents’: the elusive, devastating Rachel, and Alex, so tightly wound he seems about to shatter.
So where are they? It’s not a school, despite the ‘lessons’ with the headsets and changing images. It’s not a psych unit—not if the absence of medication means anything. It’s not a jail, because Daniel’s free to leave. Or that’s what they tell him.
He knows he and the others are part of an experiment.
But he doesn’t know who’s running it or what they’re trying to prove. And he has no idea what they’re doing to him.
Rating:
Characters: 4/10
Atmosphere: 5/10
Writing: 6/10
Plot: 5/10
Intrigue: 6/10
Logic: 5/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Average: 5.14 (which means 3 stars! But I lowered it..)
My thoughts:
I’m struggling with reviewing this book. I really was intrigued by the beginning, probably 4 stars, was really bored by the middle half, maybe even a 1 star, and then the ending was okay?! Like how to explain this..
The good thing about the beginning is that we were left a bit in the dark?! We do not fully understand why Daniel is where he is, and what exactly is happening there. You really get the feeling Daniel is not told everything. We get told enough to be really intrigued, and I really wanted to figure everything out!
But after 100 pages it just became a bit too much.. We get quite some information about the side characters, and that is interesting to a certain extend. But it just was a bit too much for me. It also did not help that I did not care for any of the characters, inclusing the main character.
Since this book kinda lost my interest in the middle part, I wasn’t too focussed on the ending with all the reveals.. So that got me a bit confused on what actually had happened!
So basically I really liked the first 100 pages, but not much of the rest. So tbh I do not recommend this book. I am interested in if she writes something new, maybe her writing has then improved!
Sorry that this one didn’t work out for you!