Review: Wasteland by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan

Title: Wasteland
Author(s): Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan
Series: Book One of Three
Published By: HarperTeen (March 26, 2013)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA Dystopian
My Rating: 3.5 Stars!

Book Description: 
Welcome to the Wasteland. Where all the adults are long gone, and now no one lives past the age of nineteen. Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan’s post-apocalyptic debut is the first of a trilogy in which everyone is forced to live under the looming threat of rampant disesase and brutal attacks by the Variants—hermaphroditic outcasts that live on the outskirts of Prin. Esther thinks there’s more to life than toiling at harvesting, gleaning, and excavating, day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day. But then Caleb, a mysterious stranger, arrives in town, and Esther begins to question who she can trust. As shady pasts unravel into the present and new romances develop, Caleb and Esther realize that they must team together to fight for their lives and for the freedom of Prin.

Purchase Links: Amazon/B&N

My Review:

I have really been loving the dystopian genre lately. There have been so many great ones out that half the time I don't even know which ones to read first.

I took a chance on this one and decided to give it a try and I have to say, I really liked it. I wasn't sure at first if I was going to but it slowly won me over.

Esther was such a determined and slightly sassy little thing. She was brave, kind and loving in a very harsh world were love barely seemed to exist. In a world so ridiculed with filth, polluted rain and the harsh sun that very few made it past early childhood let alone into their teens.

I loved the cruel harsh world that the authors created. It was slightly creepy with the variants, lack of food and all around devastation. It was bleak and almost without hope. A world ruled by teenagers who were uneducated and nothing short of heathens.

Although the people were uneducated and their future was bleak, they were fighters, all of them and it seems as the story progressed, they weren't all without hope.

Caleb was one such person.

I really enjoyed Caleb's character. He was strong and a little fierce and still, even though he had lost everything, he could still care and most of all, love.

He was Levi's opposite in almost every sense of the word. Levi was an excellent villain that almost no one saw coming. He was cruel and ruthless and had no heart. In fact, the only thing he had going for him was the fact that he was brilliant. An evil mastermind at work. Yet he was still just a boy. A very lost and lonely little boy.

Eli, Skar, Joseph (oh I loved him!) and Sarah were all pretty good characters too and I enjoyed reading about them as well, especially Eli. My heart went out to him most of all I think.

This really was a very intriguing story. It was well done and very different from other dystopians I have read. I would definitely pick up a book by these two authors in the future.