The reason this novel resonated with me so deeply is because of the logical manner in which events progressed. Say that something like the premise actually happens in the far off future, preferably when I am dead and long gone, I can see humanity reacting the way it does in the novel. Host’s novel is utterly believable that’s not an easy feat for a book featuring parasitic aliens.For such a slim novel to deliver the way it did was astonishing. Host’s characterizations and portrayals of friendship both of the female variety and the male, platonic as well as romantic, is charming. I liked how each character seemed larger than life but not stereotyped. The novel is also multicultural, featuring a cast that is diverse in race and culture, and I really liked that. Instead of white protagonists fighting white enemies and defending white people, the novel is better reflective of an actual population that contains people from all sorts of walks of life.The writing also is very engaging and there is no point where I was flung out of the narrative. The pacing was fast and things happened quickly as they needed to because of the length of the novel. The portions that did give me pause included the ease with which the teens adapted their new identities as greens and blues. It felt like an entire culture sprung up almost immediately that separated the two and I would have liked more information and exploration about the differences in the colours – what makes one more dominant than the other? Was the coloring arbitrary or did the colour depend on something in your blood and mind? Who were these greens? I also thought that the resolution was reached a bit too easily. Things don’t simply happen that simply. The main character was reminiscent of Katniss in Mockingjay but I didn’t understand why. No one in her family dies. Not a single person and considering the losses suffered by other characters, her stoicism seems a bit artificial. Yes, she is the strongest of them all but I didn’t feel as connected to her as I did to any of the other characters. I felt that the reader was being ushered into treating the main character as this super-strong, long-suffering protagonist and had the novel been a trilogy or something that allowed me to go deeper into her psyche than we got a chance to, maybe I would have bought that but as it stands, I did not really get that vibe from her.All said and done however, I did enjoy this novel and I do think that if apocalyptic novels are your thing, you may enjoy it too. Give it a chance.
