BOOK: Missing Era - The Emergence
AUTHOR: A. O. Khalil
RATING: 2/5 stars
I’ve received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Let’s make something very clear before I start the review per se: I loved the idea behind this book. It was a very interesting end-of-the-world story with some very intriguing twists and turns. I would gladly give 5 stars to the idea, for the novelty of it. However, there were some things that I could oversee so I could give more than 2 stars to the book and I think the main reason was the execution.
I’ll divide this review in two parts: the things I liked and the things I didn’t like.
Things I liked:
1. Like I mentioned, I really loved the idea. Sinkholes start appearing all over the world and suddenly people start to go missing. The government and all authorities are baffled and no one has a good explanation for what is going on. And then, all in once, things start to get real bad.
It was an awesome idea that could, and can, lead to an awesome story. I am very intrigued by where the story is going and where it is going to end.
2. The Uglies. The Uglies are the people who start coming out of the sinkholes. They are completely different from us and they do things in a very interesting way. They are, most definitely, a really nice antagonist.
3. The prologue. It was excellent to set the tone for the story as well as where we are time-wise. It was one of the most well written parts of the book, if I can say so, and it left me wanting for more. If I have to be completely honest it was the prologue, more than the description of the book, that left me hooked and curious to know what was going to happen.
4. I really liked the main characters being adults. Nowadays, when we have a dystopic story or an end-of-the-world tale many of the main characters tend to be adolescents or young adults. The main character of this book and its narrator, Jayson, is an adult married man. This was a very nice change.
5. The POV. I like first person narrators because we get to see the story as someone sees it. Also because first person narrators are completely unreliable and they can’t be trusted in any way. It is nice to try to weave out what is actually going on and what is the character’s opinions on stuff.
Things I didn’t like:
1. The narrative itself. I feel so much could have been done with the idea and I didn’t see much happening. I mean, the story doesn’t stop for one second, with the characters jumping from one place to the other, but many things I perceive as completely useless.
Also, the narrative repeats itself quite a bit, with many things being said two times or more in the same page.
2. I couldn’t make much difference between the characters voices. Besides their opinions sometimes, they were no different. There was no distinguishable tone or mannerisms.
3. But the main thing, the thing that really made me lower the rating (from 3 stars to 2) was the inherent sexism of this book. The main character was the one who always had the ideas, who led, who was always better than the other ones. The girls were never taken to the action, there was always an excuse to “keep them safe”, the girls had all the emotional reactions, etc. If that was only the main character, that would not be much of a problem, because the character can be misogynistic to no difference to the narrative. But I couldn’t separate the character’s opinions and actions from the narrative itself. Everyone and their dog seemed to think the same.
All in all, this story has lots of potential and I am really intrigued to see where this is going. There is a good possibility that I will buy the next book to see how the story will unfold. The twist in the end was pretty nice and hinted at bigger things to come.
Let’s make something very clear before I start the review per se: I loved the idea behind this book. It was a very interesting end-of-the-world story with some very intriguing twists and turns. I would gladly give 5 stars to the idea, for the novelty of it. However, there were some things that I could oversee so I could give more than 2 stars to the book and I think the main reason was the execution.
I’ll divide this review in two parts: the things I liked and the things I didn’t like.
Things I liked:
1. Like I mentioned, I really loved the idea. Sinkholes start appearing all over the world and suddenly people start to go missing. The government and all authorities are baffled and no one has a good explanation for what is going on. And then, all in once, things start to get real bad.
It was an awesome idea that could, and can, lead to an awesome story. I am very intrigued by where the story is going and where it is going to end.
2. The Uglies. The Uglies are the people who start coming out of the sinkholes. They are completely different from us and they do things in a very interesting way. They are, most definitely, a really nice antagonist.
3. The prologue. It was excellent to set the tone for the story as well as where we are time-wise. It was one of the most well written parts of the book, if I can say so, and it left me wanting for more. If I have to be completely honest it was the prologue, more than the description of the book, that left me hooked and curious to know what was going to happen.
4. I really liked the main characters being adults. Nowadays, when we have a dystopic story or an end-of-the-world tale many of the main characters tend to be adolescents or young adults. The main character of this book and its narrator, Jayson, is an adult married man. This was a very nice change.
5. The POV. I like first person narrators because we get to see the story as someone sees it. Also because first person narrators are completely unreliable and they can’t be trusted in any way. It is nice to try to weave out what is actually going on and what is the character’s opinions on stuff.
Things I didn’t like:
1. The narrative itself. I feel so much could have been done with the idea and I didn’t see much happening. I mean, the story doesn’t stop for one second, with the characters jumping from one place to the other, but many things I perceive as completely useless.
Also, the narrative repeats itself quite a bit, with many things being said two times or more in the same page.
2. I couldn’t make much difference between the characters voices. Besides their opinions sometimes, they were no different. There was no distinguishable tone or mannerisms.
3. But the main thing, the thing that really made me lower the rating (from 3 stars to 2) was the inherent sexism of this book. The main character was the one who always had the ideas, who led, who was always better than the other ones. The girls were never taken to the action, there was always an excuse to “keep them safe”, the girls had all the emotional reactions, etc. If that was only the main character, that would not be much of a problem, because the character can be misogynistic to no difference to the narrative. But I couldn’t separate the character’s opinions and actions from the narrative itself. Everyone and their dog seemed to think the same.
All in all, this story has lots of potential and I am really intrigued to see where this is going. There is a good possibility that I will buy the next book to see how the story will unfold. The twist in the end was pretty nice and hinted at bigger things to come.
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