“Her abduction was just the beginning. Her survival will change everything.
Seventeen-year-old Bria Averton grew up in a small town of survivors near the ruins of Portland, Maine. It’s all she’s ever known — until she’s kidnapped along with hundreds of other teens and brought to the city of Talionis. A city no one knew existed.
The soldiers tell them the intense trainings are for the good of the survivors, and Bria resists being forced into a new life as a recruited soldier. But she soon finds the dangers in the city are greater than she imagined.
Escape is impossible, and Bria is drowning in the evil of the city…and the guilt from her own past. But can she find hope, even here?”
Series: Book #1 in the “Talionis” series.
Spiritual Content- Prayers; Going to a church (plus a mention of the stained glass and a Scripture being partially available to read); Being witnessed to; Talks about God, Jesus, believing in Him, honoring Him, & His plans; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God and Jesus; Bria’s parents never cared for “religious things”, but after her brother’s death, they changed and clung to God while she ignored and tuned out whenever they talk about Him; Bria believes that God does not want anything to do with her because of a past event, so despite wanting to a few times to ask God why all of this is happening to her, she does not; Bria prays a couple times in a “if you’re there, God…” sort of way; Bria notices the peace that others have and yearns for it; *Major Spoilers* At the end, a side character dies to protect the innocent and those who aren’t ready to face death or what comes after it yet, which confuses Bria; She cries out to God asking why she is still alive and her friend tells her about having the freedom of Heaven; Bria thinks it’s too late for her and that God won’t want her, but her friend encourages her to reach out to God for forgiveness and Bria realizes she can’t go on by herself anymore and prays then feels peace *End of Spoilers*; A side character has a tattoo that says “Honor God” with a cross underneath; Mentions of God, Jesus, believing in Him, trusting Him, peace, & forgiveness; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions of a church; A mention of sin;
*Note: Bria thinks that maybe the “evil of Talionis is the Hell” she deserves for a past event she blames herself for; Bria thinks of some others as evil; Bria thinks she deserves to be locked away from experiencing anything good because of demons of her past (because of her brother’s death); A woman comments on Bria’s cleaned-up appearance being “miraculous almost”.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘gah’, a ‘ticked’, two forms of ‘crap’, three ‘shut up’s, and eight forms of ‘stupid’; Eye rolling & Sarcasm (including both teasingly and disrespectfully; Bria gets called out by her mom for one of her disrespectful attitudes); Bria lies (mostly due to trying to not be caught by the enemy); Lots of attacking/fighting, being shot/being shot at, being hit/beaten/slapped, being drugged and kidnapped, setting and hearing explosions, pain, injuries, blood/bleeding, passing out, & throwing up (semi-detailed); Seeing others be killed and nearly killed, drowned and nearly drowned, shot, shocked/tased, hit/beaten, attacked, fighting, in pain, injured, bleeding, & unconscious (and recalling most of it all, up to semi-detailed); Bria feels guilt and responsible for her brother’s death; *Spoilers* Bria feels to blame for her brother’s death because he followed her out swimming when they weren’t supposed to; She feels heavy guilt over this and tells someone about the day and her father trying to revive him (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Towards the end, Bria feels like she is responsible for another person drowning to their death (barely-above-not-detailed) *End of Spoilers*; Bria and the others go through training exercises that seem very realistic and includes shooting and killing those in their way, seeing others shot and killed, kidnapping someone, and setting explosions (including of a building with people in it; Bria struggles with how realistic it all is and has nightmares of it; all up to semi-detailed); Bria and many others around her age are abducted and drugged to become soldiers (also a younger child who witnessed the kidnappings); Bria wishes she could strangle someone; A side character tells Bria that he doesn’t enjoy taking lives or harming people, but will do it to stop evil people from hurting the innocent; Many mentions of deaths, murders, bodies, guilt, & grief (Bria for her brother and her seeing her parents’ grief over the death as well); Many mentions of explosives and explosions, weapons/guns, being shot, being shot at, being held at gunpoint, & shooting others; Many mentions of beatings, injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a war (including a video of a young girl disappearing in an explosion, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of child soldiers; Mentions of possible deaths & a leader not caring if others die while doing his plans; Mentions of kidnappings & being drugged; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of being betrayed & traitors; A few mentions of executions; A few mentions of a drug; A few mentions of bullies; A few mentions of a tattoo (that has a Christian meaning); A few mentions of rumors;
*Note: Groups cheer for others to be executed or drowned (which Bria and her friends are not apart of); Bria’s new friend, Nika, has hints implying she is from an unhappy and possibly abusive family; Bria stuffs down her emotions when thinking about her family or her brother’s death; Mentions of propaganda and brainwashing; A couple mentions of a father not loving his son.
Sexual Content- Touches, Flutters, Nearness (up to semi-detailed); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of hand kisses (greeting/thanks, not romantic leaning); Mentions of blushes & winks; Mentions of handsome/cute guys; A couple mentions of an illegitimate son & him being ignored by his biological father like he didn’t exist; A couple mentions of flirting; A couple mentions of crushes; Light possible falling in love & the emotions;
*Note: A couple mentions of butts (butting into a conversation and someone ordering another to get their butt down).
-Bria Averton, age 17
1st person P.O.V. of Bria
450 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This series has intimidated me for a while because of the length of the books. It’s a commitment and one I’ve been hesitant about, despite usually enjoying this genre.
As an avid dystopian fan, I did find quite a few parts predictable and other scenes/events a little too easy. That said, Bria needed some easy wins because there’s a lot of brutal training and fighting she has to go through. On that note, though, towards the end, Bria and the group have to trust a lot of different people and I kept waiting for it to completely blow up and the plans not to work out because it seemed so sudden (and slightly out of character) for her to trust so many others.
I have to appreciate and comment on the fact that this book wasn’t super gruesome or violent. Sure, there’s life or death situations—many of them, actually—but we aren’t given a lot of the details of all the fighting or killing. There’s enough to know what’s going on and some reactions from Bria, but the author didn’t add in unnecessary details or go over-the-top explaining all the blood or injuries. It actually felt cleaner than some other Christian YA Dystopian books I’ve read in the past and this review isn’t super long with content details because of that.
Bria does act like the teenager girl she is at times in the way of a near death situation is happening—but she’s noticing a cute guy and trying to convince herself she doesn’t like him like that. I honestly figured out my thoughts and predictions on him early on, but I can’t say I really like him as a love interest at this point. Perhaps he’ll get better as the series continues. She let her emotions control her at times and started frustrating me around the middle all the way to the end. There were poor decisions made that, thankfully, didn’t come back to bite her. I’ll admit that obviously I don’t know how I would handle the things she faces, but her lack of control bothered me.
This book did what every dystopian book makes me feel: the need to work out and exercise more just in case I need to fight against a corrupt government. Hey, you never know!
It did feel kind of slow to me at times despite all the events and action. I think this was because I wanted certain people and their evil agenda to be taken down already and we were nowhere near that—and aren’t going to be for a couple more books it sounds like. There’s a lot of explaining and setting the stage in this first book (which makes sense because it’s the first book in a series), but it dragged at times because I wanted justice to prevail and am instead having to go through the beginning motions of an uprising.
There stronger faith content than I was expecting and just as a random note, I appreciated that the names for God and Jesus in the discussions in this book we’re just that—God and Jesus. No made-up fantasy code names. This really shone because a couple different people witness to Bria and talk to her seriously about God and Jesus dying for her in a slightly heavy-handed way. I don’t think these moments would have been as impactful if the actual names weren’t used so I’m glad the author decided to do that.
Overall, I suppose I liked this book well enough. It’s definitely not a new favorite of mine for the genre, but I will definitely be continuing with the rest of the series and looking for good to win and evil to be destroyed.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
