Helpful Score: 1
I got this book to review through NetGalley. It ended up being nothing like what I thought it was going to be and I struggled with it right from the beginning. The book jumps around a ton between many different characters. While this wasn't hard to follow it broke the story up a lot and made it hard to stay engaged in the story.
The premise was also a bit unbelievable to me. Basically anyone who isn't an Equal and doesn't have a magical gift has to serve as a slave for 10 years. Many of the people serve in awful slave camps with little to no food or shelter. Some serve on the Equal's estates. The people seem to have been basically okay with this for many years despite the fact that normal people are way more prevalent than Equals.
The book takes place on an alternate sort of Earth, so it's set in modern day (I thought it was supposed to be a Victorian setting). The books ends up being more of a YA dystopian than anything else (it seems more like a fantasy based on the description but it's not). The blurb on the back does a very poor job of describing what the reader is getting in this book.
The book bounces between the Abi's family members (focusing mainly on Abi's and Luke's POVs) but also bounces between the POVs of the three Equal brothers Abi ends up serving. In addition to this we occasionally hear from the POV of other Equal members outside of the Abi's serving family.
The constant jumping around between all these points of view (POVs) honestly makes the story a bit of a mess. For the first part it was just tough to follow what was going on. As the story continued it was easier to understand what was happening but I was still frustrated by how little I understood the world and how little I engaged with these characters.
This whole book was a bit frustrating for me because I feel like the author is on the edge of something really great but never actually gets there. I think the characters could be amazing if we weren't jerked around between so many of them...but we just never get to know them well enough to care. I feel like the world could be amazing if we were able to focus on a few areas rather than jumping around. I also feel like the concept of Equals could be an awesome thing if only the author had explained it better.
Overall this ends up being an okay book that I think could have been something really great with a bit more editing and cohesiveness. Although there are bits and pieces in here that I found intriguing I don't plan on continuing the series. This book was just too all over the place.
The premise was also a bit unbelievable to me. Basically anyone who isn't an Equal and doesn't have a magical gift has to serve as a slave for 10 years. Many of the people serve in awful slave camps with little to no food or shelter. Some serve on the Equal's estates. The people seem to have been basically okay with this for many years despite the fact that normal people are way more prevalent than Equals.
The book takes place on an alternate sort of Earth, so it's set in modern day (I thought it was supposed to be a Victorian setting). The books ends up being more of a YA dystopian than anything else (it seems more like a fantasy based on the description but it's not). The blurb on the back does a very poor job of describing what the reader is getting in this book.
The book bounces between the Abi's family members (focusing mainly on Abi's and Luke's POVs) but also bounces between the POVs of the three Equal brothers Abi ends up serving. In addition to this we occasionally hear from the POV of other Equal members outside of the Abi's serving family.
The constant jumping around between all these points of view (POVs) honestly makes the story a bit of a mess. For the first part it was just tough to follow what was going on. As the story continued it was easier to understand what was happening but I was still frustrated by how little I understood the world and how little I engaged with these characters.
This whole book was a bit frustrating for me because I feel like the author is on the edge of something really great but never actually gets there. I think the characters could be amazing if we weren't jerked around between so many of them...but we just never get to know them well enough to care. I feel like the world could be amazing if we were able to focus on a few areas rather than jumping around. I also feel like the concept of Equals could be an awesome thing if only the author had explained it better.
Overall this ends up being an okay book that I think could have been something really great with a bit more editing and cohesiveness. Although there are bits and pieces in here that I found intriguing I don't plan on continuing the series. This book was just too all over the place.
Really enjoyed this book! I'm invested in the characters and plot. It takes place in an alternate England, a dystopian world where every one in England - except the Equals - must serve ten years of servitude (called slavedays) before becoming a full citizen. Until then certain good jobs are unavailable, you can't own a home and can't travel abroad. Slavedays can be served at any time, with most commoners serving them when they are much older and have lived some of their lives. But one family choses to serve their days as a family, or rather the parents and older sister decide for Luke, 16 and Daisy, 10. What they don't understand is that once they begin to serve their slavedays they have entered a state of non legal personhood. They are no longer people and have no rights.
The Equals are aristocrats with magical gifts. Some are nice and some aren't.
Some people involved with the Equals seem to disappear. Some Equals treat those serving under them as nothing more than chattel or worse. If you don't serve the Equals then you serve in slavetowns, industrial zones in the cities. Where its dirty, smelly, crowded, etc. A place where the security force is mean.
This is a promising volume one in a series. Looking forward to reading the next two.
The Equals are aristocrats with magical gifts. Some are nice and some aren't.
Some people involved with the Equals seem to disappear. Some Equals treat those serving under them as nothing more than chattel or worse. If you don't serve the Equals then you serve in slavetowns, industrial zones in the cities. Where its dirty, smelly, crowded, etc. A place where the security force is mean.
This is a promising volume one in a series. Looking forward to reading the next two.
