Hey everyone,
So I know i've been promising this one for a long time but today i've finally got round to typing this review up and i'm pretty excited. I adored this book so much and really want to but the sequel but unfortunately i'm waiting for a different cover to come out in paperback.
Anyway, this is my first review on this channel and I think that it's going to be a good one because I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on goodreads!
The back of this book says:
"They say that the cure for love will make me happy and safe forever. And i've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, i'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years suffocated by a lie. There was a time when love was the most important thing in the world. People would go to the end of the earth to find it. They would tell lies for it. Even kill for it. Then, at last, they found the cure."
This really intrigued me and i'd heard a lot about this book and how it was dystopian but different from all of the others that I read.
PLOT:
The plot of this book is very imaginative and I felt that while I was reading it that I was living in that world. Reading their scriptures in the Book of Shhh and believing that love was something destructive and vicious and should be stopped. The society in which you are dragged into seem to believe that the cure is a life saver. It will save them from pain and suffering with the protagonist Lena counting down the days to the day she will be cured of love forever. The cure itself sounds terrifying and at first you can't understand why these characters really want to have this done but through learning about their society and their views you begin to understand why it is that these people want this life. Society are simply terrified of becoming "infected" with love and the idea of the Book of Shhh as being like a bible to these people with it's scary scriptures about the dangers of love is an interesting concept. In particular I love the nursery rhyme that the parents read to their children to scare them about love and warn them against it:
"Mama mama help me get home.
I'm out in the woods, i'm out on my own.
I found me a werewolf a nasty old mutt.
It showed me it's teeth and went straight for my gut.
Mama mama help me get home.
I'm out in the woods, i'm out on my own.
I was stopped by a vampire a rotting old wreck.
It showed me it's teeth and went straight for my neck.
Mama mama put me to bed.
I wont make it home i'm already half dead.
I met an invalid and fell for his art.
He showed me his smile and went straight for my heart."
Now for my inner Higher English student to come out and analyse this; The idea that a simple man is compared to scary creatures like a werewolf and a vampire shows that they are very dangerous and may also be something that people don't necessarily believe in because society convinces it's citizens that Invalids do not exist. The fact that in the rhyme the child wants help home on the first two occasions but wont make it in the third suggests that an Invalid is more scary than vampires and werewolves and should be something that is feared by people especially those who have not had the cure.
CHARACTERS:
I felt that I could really relate to Lena, she is an ordinary girl who makes mistakes and panics when under pressure. She is the shy type who likes to stay out of trouble and looks forward to the day that she will be cured of love and will never have to worry again. On the other hand, her friend Hana is a daredevil who insults society and lives life on the edge without letting society dictate what she wants to do. Lena is mostly torn up over the death of her mother who was "infected" and committed suicide. We learn a lot about why her mother did this and the pain which she was put through which makes society seem not quite as perfect as they seem. And then we have Alex, he is a good looking, strong character who is not all that he appears to be and has a fair few surprises up his sleeve.
FAVOURITE QUOTE:
"It's so strange how life works: you want something and you wait and wait and feel like it's taking forever to come. Then it happens and it's over and all you want to do is curl back up in that moment before everything changed."
Anyway I loved this book and can't wait to get the sequel and read about what happens.
Leigh xoxo
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