My dad used to love telling the story about how I kicked my way into the world ten weeks early. He swore I screamed so loud the midwife almost dropped me on my head. ‘Holy devil on a pushbike,’ she said. ‘Just listen to that attitude already.’
In a divided Britain, seventeen-year-old Atty accepts her first proper job as a freedom fighter—all she has to do is spy on two abandoned kids. It should be a doddle in the park, but things turn messy and she gets tangled in lies, trapped on the wrong side of the border and isolated from everything she knows. And if dealing with corrupt agents, missing children and dead bodies isn’t enough, she has two lads competing for her attention, tweaking at her hormones until she can’t think straight. But if she doesn’t figure out who she can trust soon, the future she’s always dreamt of will be lost.
Breaking East is the first book in the Bone trilogy—a coming-of-age, British dystopian, packed with action and fraught with the trouble called boys.
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My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Though I have been reviewing mostly fantasy books recently, dystopian novels are what originally got me into the YA genre (the Uglies by Scott Westerfeld anyone??). When I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, I was excited to get back to my dystopian roots! Bob E Summer certainly did not disappoint.
The main character, Atty, is strong willed and clever, but still young and fallible. I liked that she made mistakes, as I feel that many authors find ways for their characters to escape situations they shouldn’t be able to. Atty is very much a seventeen year old girl and I liked her more for it.
The book, while only 250 pages, was action packed. Atty was constantly moving and there was always something happening. Those 250 pages really flew by for me. That being said, I do wish the author had done a bit more world building – something I am looking forward to in the sequel. I also would have LOVED a map. It would have been nice to see how the world Bob E Summer imagined was laid out.
My Takeaway: Breaking East was a good start to what promises to be a gripping and action filled trilogy. I would like to see more world building and possibly a map in the second book – which I will most certainly be reading.
As The Book Ends 