Amazon has this nice little system where, if you have a prime membership, you can borrow a book for a month on your kindle, return it, and then get another book. Of course, this cycle continues at the start of every month. Something I’ve noticed with these “borrowed books”, however, is the fact that (with the exception of maybe one or two) they either suck or are insultingly mediocre. This could be because these are mostly independent authors, but I don’t always think that an amateur author always equals a bad book. So, with all of this in mind, how does The Defectors hold up? Sit back, relax, and read on as I review The Defectors by Tarah Benner.
The Setup:
Prior to the story, a virus began to spread through the human race, turning people into creatures known as carriers and slowly drains the host of their humanity. Zombies, anyone? So, in order to try and ward off the epidemic, a new government has taken over and forced everyone to become citizens by injecting a device into their arms that allows them to be tracked. Those who refuse the device will be hunted down and imprisoned. Our main protagonist for the evening, Haven, is packing up for a trip to move west with her undocumented friend, Greyson. However, they are caught by the drones that the government put up, causing Greyson to be arrested and for Haven to “defect”, or go against the law. She runs through the woods for several days and encounters spoiler after spoiler until she finally ends up at a farm that houses undocumented criminals, and she joins up with them. Now, when it comes to apocalypse books, I’m normally pretty lenient when it comes to a recycled story because you can always bring something new to the table concerning your setup, and I do like the idea of combining a dystopian world with one that had been struck with apocalypse. The only problem is something that I’ll bring up and talk about more in the story section, but the book doesn’t know how to balance these elements.
The Characters:
The characters in this book are incredibly stock and clichéd, with the exception of one. Haven is the prime example of a main protagonist that, while her development was nice, you learn next to nothing about. She’s your typical “sheltered girl learns how to be tough and strong” character. She’s predictable, and it’s boring. Amory, the main love interest, matches up Haven’s blandness with his own plainness as the “love interest that has a dark past” character, and nothing new is brought to the table concerning him. Every other character only has one trait to them: Roman is cold, distant, and angry; Max is the “nice guy” who loves to cook; Greyson is a character that we know next to nothing about in the beginning except for the fact that he’s Haven’s best friend. Actually, I’m going to talk about that, because that’s one of my major problems with the story. Greyson literally gets captured in the first chapter of the story, before we even get an introduction to anything concerning the book. While I’m not someone to argue against an action-packed opening, if something happens to a character that we barely know about, then why should we care? Book, that’s something you have to build up to, not shove in the audience’s face in the very beginning! We don’t even truly know what the heck is going on, let alone care about the fact that they’re being separated! And then throughout the story, his rescue is practically Haven’s goal, but since we know nothing about him, again, why should I care? You barely even established the bond between them beyond just telling us about it; this is something you have to show to the audience so that it feels genuine! Moving on, the only character I thought was truly memorable was this girl named Logan. Without veering into spoiler territory, Logan was the most interesting character in the entire book, and she would’ve been a much better main character than Haven.
The Story:
The story was relatively well paced, but had some issues when it came to world building, which leads me to talking about what I mentioned before; the story focuses too much on the dystopian aspect of the setup and practically ignoring the carriers, with the carriers only showing up a few times to create drama and tension because, psh, the characters sure aren’t going to do that on their own! For example, the book brings up the idea that the carriers might be smarter than your average zombie in the beginning of the book, but then it is never addressed again, and the next time we really see a carrier in action is when the plot stated, “We need more drama or we’re going to bore our audience more than we already are!”, with the characters arguing over whether or not the carriers are truly human. With more focus on the darn creatures, I’m pretty sure the audience would be able to make their own theories, but since they’re barely featured in the story the carriers are just another plot device and don’t amount to more than that. As for the dystopian aspect you’d think that this would at least be intriguing because it’s a lot more focused on, but unfortunately it’s just as generic as the rest of the book, with the exception of what they forced Logan to do. Then again, anything having to do with Logan was the only reason I continued to read this book, but still.
The Writing Style/Grammatical Errors:
There is one word that can describe the writing style; boring. There’s nothing special about it, and it didn’t help all of the genericness that the book had to offer. No grammatical errors that really stood out to me.
Final Judgment:
It’s BORING! Everything about it is generic and I’ve seen it a million times before. However, if you don’t mind clichés and enjoy this kind of story despite its flaws, you’ll probably like this book. I give The Defectors a 1.75 out of 5, and a recommendation to skip it unless you’re a diehard fan of this genre. But, like always, it is up to you to decide your own opinion.
The Defectors on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Defectors-Trilogy-Tarah-Benner-ebook/dp/B00FB2W7VC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395621410&sr=8-1&keywords=the+defectorsScoreCard:
Further Recommendations:
In The After
With a better character cast and an enjoyable story, this is a much better take on a combination of a dystopian apocalypse. Check it out!
Finding Eden
This apocalypse novel, though implausible, offers a more intimidating threat to humanity than the carriers ever will be. It’s a fun read.
Anime review next week! Here’s the hint: I don’t think that Kaito was expecting that his movie would turn out like this…
See you then!
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