E by Kate Wrath

Plusgood

E is the first book in a three-part series. The series is set in a dystopian world in which the police are robots with no sense of semantics or gray areas. If you are a first time offender, you are taken to have your memory erased. If you have a second offense, you are killed. Eden has just been erased and starts on a journey of survival and discovery. When she meets Jonas and Apollon, her life takes a drastic turn towards the inevitable.

This is a stunning read. The author writes fluidly, if sometimes passively, and injects just the right amount of description so the world she creates feels real, but the reader isn't bogged down. The characters in the novel are well written, with complex desires and emotions. There are twists sprinkled throughout the novel that made me want to keep going, and the ending sentence of each chapter guarantees a page turn.

I think my favorite part of this work is the delicate balance the author played with between the darkness of the surroundings and the hope of the characters. Oscar was by far my favorite character, and he is as lovable and innocent as any child in a dystopia could be. I connected with Eden on a human level; I felt her highs as well as her lows and her reactions to the situations described in the novel were spot on.

If I had one reservation about this novel, it would be that sometimes the author slips into a passive voice, which is not a deal breaker by any means, but definitely took me out of the action a few times while I reread. There is also a very clipped, fast pace to the novel. There were times I was in a moment with the characters and suddenly all hell broke loose and I had to go back and figure out what was happening.

Overall, however, I would definitely recommend this read, and I will be reading the rest of the series in the future.

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