Genre: YA/Dystopian
Published: July 12, 2014
Pages: 252
Ages: 14+
(My estimate)
Synopsis
Two years after the massacre, the State enforces stricter rules and harsher punishments on anyone rumored to support tomo – the clairvoyant drug that caused a regional uprising.
But sixteen-year-old Sophia Gray has other problems.
Between her father’s illegal forgery and her friend’s troubling history, the last thing Sophia needs is an unexpected encounter with a boy.
He’s wild, determined, and one step ahead of her. But when his involvement with tomo threatens her friends and family, Sophia has to make a decision: fight for a future she cannot see or sacrifice her loved ones to the world of tomorrow.
Review
This book felt a bit like Mockingjay to me. After an economic catastrophe, the US is split up into different regions somewhat similar to the Districts in the Hunger Games series, Sophia is just lucky enough to live in "Take Me Tomorrow"'s equivalent to the Capital in the Hunger Games, and yet she is more like Katniss than any of the vapid Capital residents. Also like in The Hunger Games, traveling between the regions is almost unheard of.
What I loved about this book is how realistic it felt. The Topeka region is the head of the State and it is run by a man named Phelps. Ms. Thompson went to school in Kansas, so I have to believe it's not a coincidence that she used the name of the leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church (which is based in Topeka, Kansas) as the leaders for the Topeka region and the state. Being from Kansas myself, it's not a stretch for me to believe that the Westboro Baptist Church's brand of crazy would ultimately reign supreme after the complete breakdown of our current government structure, at least in Kansas. And how did the Topeka region become the leader of the whole state? Easy. We grow most of the food. (At least that's what I imagine based on the story and my background as a Kansas native). What's great about this book, is that it actually led me to think about these things and the way it's portrayed makes a whole lot of sense.
This story is told in first person from Sophia's perspective, so we only know what she knows, and apparently she is the least informed person involved in all the drama. This lends the story a great sense of mystery and suspense, and makes all the excitement feel a lot more personal and terrifying. We also only know the characters as they present themselves to Sophia, which led to a whole lot of mistrust on my part near the middle of the book.
My problem with this book and the reason I detracted one star is because there were several spelling/grammatical errors in the book. They didn't impede the flow of the story much at all, but there were more than I expect to find in a book of this size.
Overall this was a great YA book though, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent. I think fans of those series would really enjoy this book as well. I also hope that this is the start of a new series by Ms. Thompson, because I would love to see more from Sophia, Noah, Lily, Miles and Broden.
Copy received in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Author
Shannon A. Thompson is a 23-year-old author, avid reader, and a habitual chatterbox. She was merely 16 when she was first published, and a lot has happened since then. Thompson’s work has appeared in numerous poetry collections and anthologies, including a Norwegian magazine, and her first installment of The Timely Death Trilogy, Minutes Before Sunset, became Goodreads Book of the Month. The sequel, Seconds Before Sunrise, has released, and AEC Stellar Publishing released her latest novel, Take Me Tomorrow, on July 17, 2014.
She graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis on creative writing.
Shannon spends her free time writing, but she loves spending time with her father and brother. She also has one black cat named after her favorite actor, Humphrey Bogart.
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