Book Review: The 100 by Kass Morgan

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Title: The 100
Author: Kass Morgan
Series: The 100 #1
Genre: YA - Science Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Original Release Date: September 3, 2013
Pages: 323
Format: Audiobook
Narrators: Justin Torres and Phoebe Strole
Source: Library

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.

CLARKE 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.

Apparently only love survives

The Earth was destroyed 300 years ago due to radiation from nuclear war. The time has come to see if the Earth is finally inhabitable again. 100 of the colony's teenage convicts and criminals are being sent on a possible suicide mission to determine if it's safe to go "home".

I went into this book expecting a survival story, but instead I got a character story. Told from 4 different perspectives we get a unique commentary from each of them, as well as a glimpse of the past each of them is hiding. I devoured this book. At first I was disappointed that this wasn't a survival story and considering putting it down, but the farther I got into the book the harder it was to stop.

Pros

Story - I heartily enjoy stories about people. Character driven stories are some of my favorites to read. Sometimes you don't need a plot to tell a great story. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was a character based story (even thought I was disappointed that it wasn't a survival on an untouched Earth story).

Characters - Being a character based story, character development was extremely important. The characters developed slowly. At first I was annoyed that I didn't have any of their backgrounds. As the story progressed, I found myself being sucked in because I desperately needed to know their backgrounds! Nicely done, Ms. Morgan. I don't really have anything to say about individual characters, but I enjoyed the ensamble as a whole. I think the perspectives were well chosen and meshed together well. I could have done without the brooding romance, though. Again - another book I would have appreciated more if I was younger.

POV - The story was told in 4 third person POVs (Clarke, Wells, Bellamy, and Glass). Then each chapter had a present time part and a flashback. Not only did we get 4 different perspectives, 1 of those perspectives wasn't on Earth so we got to see more of the life on the ship (that was my favorite POV by the way). I thought this was an interesting and effective way to tell the story.

Setting - I loved the setting of this book. Realistically the people who live in the colony would hoard Earth made things, they would lose the Earthly parts of the culture (even the lullaby "Hush Little Baby" didn't include the mockingbird), the Earth is overgrown and untouched, and the wildlife is mutated. I found myself to be very interested in the life of the people on the colony, so I found the character flashbacks to be doubly intriguing.

Cons

Plot - To me, plot and story are different things. This book had no real plot. There were a couple mini-plots that instigated conflict, but the overarching "100 criminals are sent to repopulate Earth" plot was fairly non-existent. Earlier I said that you don't need a good plot to create a great story. Unfortunately, I was expecting a plot and not a character based story, so I was a little disappointed. The story was about the people, but the plot we got was kind of weak. Once the 100 landed on Earth, I thought I would get a story of survival and defying the odds. Instead, we got more love stories and teenagers fixating on their relationships instead of creating a settlement and working together to survive. What I got instead wasn't necessarily a bad thing, mind you. It just wasn't what I was expecting. I'm not going to get all bent out of shape about what the story wasn't and instead appreciate what it was.

Romance - This didn't cost much of the rating, but the romances in this story were cheesy and selfish. I guess that's typical YA, but it was a little irritating. Not only was it typical YA, some of the romantic interludes seemed really inappropriate for the setting. You're stranded on an uninabited planet that is potentially still dangerous due to radiation, but our characters are more interested in who is kissing whom. I'm not going to fixate on this too much because it didn't damage my interest in the book. It just reminded me that there are more important things in life than the person you have a crush on kissing somebody else.

Overall

After initial disappointment that this wasn't a survival story and a few eye rolls at the romance, I was completely engrossed by what this book was. I listened to this on audiobook and was pleased with the narration (male voice for Bellamy and Wells chapters, female voice for Clarke and Glass chapters). Initially, I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue this series. After about 4 hours into it, I knew I had to continue this series! Not because I need to see how everybody's story ends and who they end up with, but because I am completely enamoured by the world Ms. Morgan has imagined. I love a good destruction story, and I equally love a good aftermath story (hold the cheesy romance, though).