Beware the Night - A Twist on Dystopian Young Adult
*This Review Contains Spoilers*
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Four out of Five Stars
Beware the Night by Jessika Fleck is the first book in The Offering Series. The novel tells about an orphaned girl named Veda who has been adopted about her grandfather or commonly known as, "Poppy" on an island called Bellona. In the beginning, we also see Veda catch feelings for her long-time best friend, Nico. She also meets Dorian, who is more important later. However, they both know they can not be together due to Veda being Basso, a lower class, and Nico, a Dogio, the higher class. This means a romantic relationship between the two could cause them both to be executed. Although this plays a huge role in their lives, they also fear the Night or the enemy. The Imperi, or the army who protects people like Veda, warn them to stay away from the Night. They tell everyone the Night takes people to torture and kill them. We also learn there was a Rebellion between the Imperi and Night. They also have an idea of when the Night will come and sacrifice a "randomly" selected person to the Sun to protect them.
Later, we discover Dorian is a member of the Night and brings Veda underground after sneaking around during the Night. Doiran introduces Veda to the Sindaco and his sister. However, Veda learns who she truly is. She first learns she is the Lunatte or the symbolic hero who will bring the Night back to power in Bellona. Veda also discovers her family is apart of the Night, but after her mother's death during the Rebellion, her father gave her to be raised with her grandfather. Speaking of her father, Sindaco turned out to be her father, which really surprised her grandfather and me is the High Regent, or ruler of Bellona and in charge of Bellona. Throughout the discovery of who she truly is, Veda is very reluctant and threatens to leave multiple times. However, she decides to go back up to visit Poppy. Within this time, another sacrificing is taking place, and it happens Poppy hides he has been chosen to be sacrificed.
After this, Veda is fully committed to the Night and decides to go on her first mission. She is asked to go convince Nico to join the Night as he has been appointed the next High Regent due to there being supposedly no heir. Unfortunately, this fails, and Veda returns back unground frustrated. However, she decides to go back up to convince Nico but is caught for being a traitor by the Imperi. It is then decided she will be sacrificed, but miraculously survives and is taken to an unknown location by the Imperi. The book ends on a cliffhanger, so that is where it ends.
Dystopian is not normally the first genre I would reach for, but I have to say I was extremely pleased. This novel did not have the archetypes normally found within the novel like these, which I found helped with the many sudden plot twists. The overall plot and the way the story moved was phenomenal.
The characters were a little different. I understood the character's feelings were coming from, how they correlated with their actions and their overall outcome in the story. However, sometimes I felt they were a little bit bland during the relationship-building scenes. Some of them, like when Veda was watching Dorian's workout, that was one hundred percent in character. Though during the scene where Veda was trying to tell Nico the great things the Night was doing, it felt off for some reason. I felt Veda would not have dropped the syringe as she knew that this was her first mission, and she needed to prove herself to her father. Another one was at the end when Veda was fighting for her life. During training with Dorian and Veda, Veda could barely hit a human target with anyone weapon. Now suddenly she can take down probably over a dozen highly trained Imperi soldiers? Things are not lining up. Those are two of the situations I can picture, but there are definitely others.
The novel was easy to imagine. Fleck did not overhype the setting, and I loved how she let the setting up to our imagination. I felt the setting would take place on an island in the Northern Atlantic, assuming this was on Earth. I imagined it always being cold and Veda wearing beige clothes with the layer. However, the Night would be wearing thick black turtle necks with leather boots.
In the end, I felt the novel may have been the best book I've read all year. It should be kept in mind most of the books I've read this year have either been for school or not the best, in my opinion. It was finally nice to read a book I was looking forward to every night.
Will I read the next book? Of course! It was amazing, and I have the next book right here waiting for me.
I rated this book four stars because I was simply a great read, but it was not life-changing.
- Read More Book Reviews and Follow my Goodreads Account: Maggie Rhoads -
- Read More Book Reviews and Follow my Goodreads Account: Maggie Rhoads -
Four out of Five Stars
Beware the Night by Jessika Fleck is the first book in The Offering Series. The novel tells about an orphaned girl named Veda who has been adopted about her grandfather or commonly known as, "Poppy" on an island called Bellona. In the beginning, we also see Veda catch feelings for her long-time best friend, Nico. She also meets Dorian, who is more important later. However, they both know they can not be together due to Veda being Basso, a lower class, and Nico, a Dogio, the higher class. This means a romantic relationship between the two could cause them both to be executed. Although this plays a huge role in their lives, they also fear the Night or the enemy. The Imperi, or the army who protects people like Veda, warn them to stay away from the Night. They tell everyone the Night takes people to torture and kill them. We also learn there was a Rebellion between the Imperi and Night. They also have an idea of when the Night will come and sacrifice a "randomly" selected person to the Sun to protect them.
Later, we discover Dorian is a member of the Night and brings Veda underground after sneaking around during the Night. Doiran introduces Veda to the Sindaco and his sister. However, Veda learns who she truly is. She first learns she is the Lunatte or the symbolic hero who will bring the Night back to power in Bellona. Veda also discovers her family is apart of the Night, but after her mother's death during the Rebellion, her father gave her to be raised with her grandfather. Speaking of her father, Sindaco turned out to be her father, which really surprised her grandfather and me is the High Regent, or ruler of Bellona and in charge of Bellona. Throughout the discovery of who she truly is, Veda is very reluctant and threatens to leave multiple times. However, she decides to go back up to visit Poppy. Within this time, another sacrificing is taking place, and it happens Poppy hides he has been chosen to be sacrificed.
After this, Veda is fully committed to the Night and decides to go on her first mission. She is asked to go convince Nico to join the Night as he has been appointed the next High Regent due to there being supposedly no heir. Unfortunately, this fails, and Veda returns back unground frustrated. However, she decides to go back up to convince Nico but is caught for being a traitor by the Imperi. It is then decided she will be sacrificed, but miraculously survives and is taken to an unknown location by the Imperi. The book ends on a cliffhanger, so that is where it ends.
Dystopian is not normally the first genre I would reach for, but I have to say I was extremely pleased. This novel did not have the archetypes normally found within the novel like these, which I found helped with the many sudden plot twists. The overall plot and the way the story moved was phenomenal.
The characters were a little different. I understood the character's feelings were coming from, how they correlated with their actions and their overall outcome in the story. However, sometimes I felt they were a little bit bland during the relationship-building scenes. Some of them, like when Veda was watching Dorian's workout, that was one hundred percent in character. Though during the scene where Veda was trying to tell Nico the great things the Night was doing, it felt off for some reason. I felt Veda would not have dropped the syringe as she knew that this was her first mission, and she needed to prove herself to her father. Another one was at the end when Veda was fighting for her life. During training with Dorian and Veda, Veda could barely hit a human target with anyone weapon. Now suddenly she can take down probably over a dozen highly trained Imperi soldiers? Things are not lining up. Those are two of the situations I can picture, but there are definitely others.
The novel was easy to imagine. Fleck did not overhype the setting, and I loved how she let the setting up to our imagination. I felt the setting would take place on an island in the Northern Atlantic, assuming this was on Earth. I imagined it always being cold and Veda wearing beige clothes with the layer. However, the Night would be wearing thick black turtle necks with leather boots.
In the end, I felt the novel may have been the best book I've read all year. It should be kept in mind most of the books I've read this year have either been for school or not the best, in my opinion. It was finally nice to read a book I was looking forward to every night.
Will I read the next book? Of course! It was amazing, and I have the next book right here waiting for me.
I rated this book four stars because I was simply a great read, but it was not life-changing.
- Read More Book Reviews and Follow my Goodreads Account: Maggie Rhoads -
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