REVIEW: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky
by Veronica Rossi

Genre: Young Adult, YA Dystopia, YA Science Fiction

Pages: 374 (hardcover)

Publication: January 2012

(Harper Collins)

via NetGalley

Goodreads Summary: Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi was one of the 2012 debuts that I was really excited for, and when I was given the chance to read it from NetGalley, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately for me, it sort of fell flat and I had to force myself to push through and finish the book, but by the end I could see some promise in the rest of the series.

Aria is a Dweller, she was born and raised in the Pods. A child of the Realms, an artificial world, she agrees to disconnect from the Realms with her friends in hopes that she may gain information about her mother. Unfortunately, there is a accident and the results leave Aria kicked out of the Pods and flung head first into the outside world known as the Death Shop. Aria encounters Perry, a savage from the outside who has reason to blame his recent misfortunes on Aria, and he agrees to aid her in finding out about her mother if she helps him with his nephew. Aria and Perry work together and eventually find that things are not as either of them initially imagined.

As I said, I had a really hard time with this book. I just could not get into the story. I was so excited by the premise, but by chapter five I could not fathom what was going on and the story seemed to drag and drag. I would read a few pages and find myself wanting to abandon the book altogether. The first three quarters of the book were torture for me. There was no set up; we jumped right into a world with characters that were flat and annoying. The narrators kept switching back and forth between chapters, but it felt forced and unidentifiable. I just wanted a set up, to know why was the world the way it was, but nothing was ever revealed, instead we were given just passing talk and hints. Then suddenly there was a flicker, like a switch had been flipped in the writer’s mind, and the story from the book blurb started to take form.

The last quarter or so of this book was like someone entirely different had written it, and it was good. The characters were alive and vivid, there was progress in the story and it was getting interesting. The story felt like it was finally amounting to something that I would enjoy reading more about. The switch between Aria and Perry was natural, like we were seeing two sides of the same story. This was what I had been eagerly awaiting. I felt that the author had finally found her stride, and it made me glad that I stuck with the story. If it hadn’t been for the last part of the book I would have given this book a one or two star rating, but because of the dramatic turnaround and the way it redeemed itself, I gave it a higher rating. And if time allows I will be picking up the next book to see if the story continues to progress as well as the ending implied.

Rating: 3 stars