Review: The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

The Forsaken

Author: Lisa M. Stasse
Series: The Forsaken #1
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, 375 pages
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

My Review:

So basically Canada, Mexico and the USA have united to form the UNA, a new totalitarian government that resorts to extreme punishments for small crimes. Teenagers have to take a test to determine if they have criminal tendencies. If they do, they are sent to this crazy prison island called the Wheel where the life expectancy is 18. Sounds cool right? I thought so. Unfortunately this book didn’t really click with me. The world-building wasn’t very good and I really wanted to know more about how the UNA formed, why there was this prison island and what the heck was going on in general. We get one line on why the UNA was formed which basically says the three countries were starving so joined together. *pauses* Um, what? That makes a lot of sense. Tell me how that solved the food shortages? At least I understand why we didn’t learn about the island. It was clear the author wanted that to remain a secret for our main character to figure out on her own.

Speaking of our main character… Alenna Shawcross was just a quiet orphan girl at the beginning of the book. She’s timid and really likes to keep to herself. Then she gets sent to the island and “turns into a fierce warrior”. At least that’s how she describes herself at the end of the book, but I never felt it. In fact, I never really felt too much with her at all. Her emotions didn’t really come through for me. There were moments where she was clearly supposed to be in emotional turmoil (Who wouldn’t be? She was sent to an island to die.), but I couldn’t feel it. It felt fake to me, like she was a really bad actress. And the romance was not good.

Alenna feels connected to this guy Liam on the island. At first she vows to stay away from him, saying that she doesn’t have time for love. She needs to focus on surviving. Good. That’s how it should be. Of course I knew she wasn’t going to stay away from him. They fall in love way too quickly. It was a bad case of insta-love. There was hardly any relationship building and it didn’t feel genuine.  

Liam was a pretty decent character. He was mysterious, hot, and could fight, all the characteristics of a potentially swoony guy. He almost got me to really like him, but I think his relationship with Alenna is what stopped me. He gives her a gift in the book which was super sweet, but I found myself wondering how he possibly had time to make it. Then, after he spends all this time making it, Alenna LEAVES IT BEHIND! True love right here people.

There are two groups on the island, the normal people that Alenna hooks up with and these crazy kids called Drones who worship a mysterious man called the Monk. This was the most interesting part of the book to me. It amazed me how two groups could be so radically different. The group Alenna is with has built a village. They are organized and have assimilated into their own way of life on the island. The other group is constantly either drunk or high (don’t ask me where they get the liquor from…it wasn’t explained). They act a lot more like a group of teenagers with no parents at a never-ending party. It was interesting to see the dynamics of the two groups and to eventually find out why they both were the way they were. Although to be honest, the explanation had holes in it and I was definitely not satisfied.

Overall, it was okay. It was fast-paced filled with constant action scenes so it definitely kept me entertained, but the more I think about it, the more I didn’t really like it. It was your typical dystopian. Girl unsure of herself lives in a country with corrupted government, gets picked out for some kind of rebel tendency, meets boy, learns how to fight, plans to rebel against the government. Not that it’s a bad formula for writing a dystopian. It works, but I would have liked to see more originality. It was predictable I guess is what I’m trying to say. The ending wasn’t a cliffhanger, things were tied up nicely. I think I’ll probably read the second book eventually, but it’s definitely not a priority for me. The strangest thing about this one was that it was a re-read and I remember really liking it the first time... Hmmm... strange how that happens, huh? Happy reading all!

Have you read this book? What did you think? Do you think that too many dystopians share similar plot lines? Leave a comment below!