Book Review – The 100

Book: The 100 (The 100 1) by Kass Morgan
Release Date: September 3rd 2013
Tags: Sci-Fi | Dystopia | Back to Earth

NO ONE HAS SET FOOT ON EARTH IN CENTURIES – UNTIL NOW.

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth’s radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents – considered expendable by society – are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life… or it could be a suicide mission.

Clark was arrested for treason, though she’s haunted by the memory of what she really did. Wells, the chancellor’s son, came to Earth for the girl he loves – but will she ever forgive him? Reckless Bellamy fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And Glass managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.

Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind’s last hope.

I find the idea of this book really interesting. The execution however was not. The main issues I have with this is how this book was set-up and the romance.

This book is written in a third pov while it follows four main characters. Their names are said at the start of each chapter when it focuses on them, which I found annoying. It doesn’t add anything. We change character between each chapter. We are thrown constantly back and forth between these characters which made it hard for me to focus on them. Next to that the chapters are relatively short and almost all have a flashback. I just had a hard time getting into it because of that. I didn’t care. As soon as I was sort of used to the setting or to a character I was jolted out of it by a flashback or a change of character. And honestly I could have used a character that wasn’t trying to justify his actions because he did it for someone else he loved.

In the midst of this all, I missed all the other characters that have to be on this Earth too. I mean it is called The 100 for nothing. But I never got the impression that the group was so big besides just mentioning that they were running out of food. Sometimes it felt it was just these four characters and three other characters or so.

Lastly, the romance that was in almost all their stories took over from this great idea. It grew on my nerves very quickly. Their romance drama was quite epic. Apparenty more epic than being dropped on Earth that they aren’t even sure is inhabitable.

I don’t think I’m going to be interested in continuing this series.