Conscience
This is a six book series. The review is based on book two. If you haven't read my review for book one, basically I had hopes for this series as the plot line and writing style have huge potential. Like book one, this book, for this reader, seems to have multiple genre personality disorder. However, this book does solidly land in the adult-dystopian shelf. In the current adult-dystopian time line, the main character, Caroline, suffers brutally for her 'crimes'. In the reflective erotic time line, the chemistry between Caroline and Jack is off the charts whenever they are alone. Let me touch on the erotic personality of the book. I never connected with Jack and Caroline as a couple. Yes, when they were together, the story line was passionate. But that's all I got. They liked sex with each other very much. But what about the other stuff that makes a relationship? Jack is supposedly by Caroline's narrative very attached to her children by the frequent reminder 'his face shows the hurt'. Okay thanks for telling me, but I'd rather you 'show' me. I almost feel like the majority of this portion of the novel could have been left out. It didn't give me much to go on to become attached or root for the hope of them being back together.
The dystopian personality was the one that I had the most hope for. The chapters start off strong. At 40%, it was feeling repetitive. Caroline's friends are brought in to get Caroline to tell the government what 'she knows'. I use the term 'what she knows' loosely as I am still not sure what she knows is harmful. These chapters are brutal but I never completely understood why the government singled her out to brutalize her. The others had also from what I gather spoken out. But they wanted her for...??? Not until Chapter 33, which is quick, do you get any semblance of maybe what's going on. Caroline has a suspicion that their President is corrupt and goes to Jack. Jack looks at her stuff and says yep. They voice their opinions in the public,sort of,- and that was...??? I found myself comparing this book to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. In The Road, you have no idea why the world fell apart. But The Road was a book of survival. A father's desperation to have his son live. In that storyline, I didn't need to know how they got there because I understood the why of the characters motivation. In this book, I have a very slight clue why they got there, and even a lesser clue as to why its important. This reader needs more details, not brutality for brutality's sake.
I have book three to read. Will I? Not right away. I really want to like this series as several trusted friends highly recommend it. I've read other reviews that loved these first two books - 5 stars. It could my personal preference for a faster paced storyline why I am not finding a connection yet.
