Everything that lives hates us…
Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.
Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture too far beyond the walls.
He’s wrong. (taken from Amazon)
Thank you to Angela Man and Orbit Books for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available now.
It’s taken me quite a while to write this review. I’ve been trying to sort out my thoughts, without much success. Hopefully, I won’t be too jumbled with my review.
Ultimately, The Book of Koli and I just weren’t friends. It’s not a lack of talent on the author’s part: in fact, I highly recommend his other book, The Girl With All the Gifts. Carey wrote a detailed dystopian novel, and has a very clear idea of where he wants to go with it.
I struggled a lot with the language used. There’s a reason for the less-than-exceptional grammar, but it bugged me. I kept mentally correcting the dialogue, which was quite distracting. Oddly enough, this sort of language is used in the brilliant show Firefly and I can handle that just fine. I wonder if listening to this book would have distracted me less.
The main character, Koli, was a bit annoying from time to time. My main issue was that, in following his point of view, the reader missed out on some awesome things that were only briefly touched on. The book moved slowly, picking up steam way past the halfway point. That isn’t necessarily a negative thing, just be aware that this isn’t a non-stop action book.
My main takeaway from this book is this: the author is skilled, but this story simply isn’t my bag.
Have you read this? What did you think?
Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub 
I am still fighting my way through it. It just isn’t my bag.
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It took me ages to read. I almost dnf’d but ended up finishing since it was an ARC.
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I’ll get there eventually
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I am a huge fan of the author so I’m biased but I love his writing. I do agree that the first half is a set-up and it really picks-up in the second-half. The rest of the series, being quick release (September and then February, I believe) will be much quicker paced. I thought the dialect choice made it more realistic but again, I’m biased to the author.
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I love reading a different point of view of a book that has gotten quite some attention lately. Don’t feel bad about not enjoying it. Like you said, this isn’t for you. Hope the next read will be better! 🙂
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Thanks!
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It didn’t work for me.
Sort of boring because we were getting current technology explained to us as if it was a futuristic thing. It felt like reading terms and conditions. No surprise. I was gutted really because I expected to love it, I thought it will be about fighting against the nature.
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That’s exactly what it was like! You nailed it.
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I liked it for the most part. While I generally like first person narratives, I agree at times we missed some fun stuff that I hope will be revealed down the road. I liked the world it was set in, and I’d love to have seen more. I’ve got book two to read soon, so maybe more will be revealed.
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Sometimes these reviews really are the hardest to write. I appreciate your thoughts on this one. I’ve been debating picking it up. Still not sure.
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Thanks! If you read it, I’d love to hear your take.
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