My take on: The 100

It all starts with a promising first sentence.....

"The door slid open, and Clarke knew it was time to die." Pg. 1 of The 100 by Kass Morgan. How can I not keeping reading? There is clearly the promise of more!

Nuclear war has left Earth a radioactive wasteland. Mankind has had to fend for itself, splitting into various factions, Walden, Arcadia, and Phoenix, living on a large space station. But now life on the space station is in peril. Oxygen is waning. There has to be a way to survive. The council has decided to send 100 of its death row/condemned inmates to Earth. Send the scraps to Earth to see if its habitable. Send the scraps to Earth to give the ruling class on Phoenix a chance to survive longer on the ship. Send the scraps to Earth to do all the hard work.

Clarke, reeling from the death of her parents, is one of the 100 rogue teenagers sent to recolonize Earth after the planet has been left desolate for centuries. Wells, son of the Chancellor, commits a crime and forces his way into the 100, to save the girl he loves. To save his sister, Octavia, Bellamy commits an act of violence just as the dropship is about to leave for Earth. Glass has managed to escape the dropship and remain on Phoenix, but life in space isn't much better.

I'm so used to books based in reality, that sometimes it's very hard to read a book like this. I keep forgetting to just let go. To just enjoy the story. To just let my imagination run wild.  There are some things I loved about this book, and there are some things I didn't.

With each chapter, there was an increasing element of suspense. I had to keep reading to find out what Clarke did to dread her 18th birthday -- the age that all condemned youth will die. Why would Wells want to go on such a deadly mission? He did it all to save Clarke. But was she worth it? Once reunited, why does Clarke have so much hatred for Wells? Once on Earth, why didn't the 100 die? What happened to the people who were left on Earth?

Sometimes this just felt like a teenage soap opera, mixed with some elements of science fiction and Lord of the Flies. There's a lot of teenage angst and hormonal activity going on here, and I'm not a big fan of that. I felt like the juicier part of the story was life on the space station after the 100 leave. Glass' story offers a glimpse into that life, just not enough for me. Equally frustrating is the ending! It just stops, right when the action is starting to pick up! But there is a flip side to that, the author succeeded in making me want to read the next book in the series. Fortunately, I don't have to be frustrated for too long because I've already started reading the sequel, Day 21.

Rating: Give it a try

Note: I received a copy of the book from FSB Associates in exchange for an honest review.