Lyn is a neo-gladiator's daughter, through and through. Her mother has made a career out of marrying into the high-profile world of televised blood sport, and the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association are second nature to their family; Always lend ineffable confidence to the gladiator. Remind him constantly of his victories. And most importantly: Never leave the stadium when your father is dying. The rules help the family survive, but rules--and the GSA--can also turn against you. When a gifted young fighter kills Lyn's seventh father, he also captures Lyn's dowry bracelet, which means she must marry him... For fans of The Hunger Games and Fight Club, Lise Haines' debut novel is a mesmerizing look at a world addicted to violence--a modern world that's disturbingly easy to imagine.
****
I wanted to enjoy this book, especially when I read the comparisons to The Hunger Games. I went into the book expecting gladiator action and a fast-paced story that would make me think. The title and the books summary made me think that this was it.
I was disappointed to find out that it wasn't.
The basic premise of the book, set in a modern day dystopia, is that gladiator style fighting is big. Bigger than football, bigger than the Olympics. Not only is it big, but it's legal and popular. In fact there's a whole society dedicated to the sport.
The story idea sounds great, full of promise and potential. However at no point did I feel like Lisa Haines lived up to that potential. The plot seemed broken, the world created by the author never seems to truly come to life and the writing was very dis-jointed and hard to follow. I was especially thrown off by Haines use of dashes in place of quotation marks. And to make matters worse, it takes the reader nearly 250 pages to reach the climax of the story before we are abruptly and rather poorly introduced to the ending.
You also aren't given much character development. The characters aren't very distinctive and at some point for me all their voices began to run together. I never really got a sense of who the main character Lyn is, what she really wants. We're given bits and pieces of who she is but nothing ever seems to come together into something concrete. Most of the secondary characters seem more like furniture than actual parts of the story.
To be quite honest I really have nothing more to add. I found it very difficult to even complete this book. I always felt like it was lacking something; be that a tighter more coherent plot or characters that were truly defined I'm not really sure.
****
My rating: 1/5. As I'm sure you can tell, I did not enjoy this book. However my opinion is not the only one out there. So for a more favorable review check out The Book Smugglers review.
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