Book Review: The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

The Forsaken

by Lisa M. Stasse
Published: July 10, 2012
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover (375 pages)
Source: For Review

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 Forsaken is about an orphan girl who has to pass a test like everyone at her age that determines if she is prone to crime.   If she fails, she will be shipped off to a prison island.  One thing I noticed about this book was the little things that made me think of me  of other science fiction novels (in an interesting and not copy-cat way). The start of the book really reminded of the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise. There are machines that remind me a little of War of The Worlds. And there was just a little dash of Divergent and The Maze Runner.

This is one of those books that takes a while to get into. It felt oddly slow at first even though lots of things are happening. I didn’t like the main character, Alenna, at first, but she gets more personality as the story goes on. There were a few plot elements that didn’t get explained all the way.  One example is that two opposing gangs from the island decided to work together for reasons that made no sense to me. I noticed that a lot of the time there are questions kind of presented to you like it was trying to make me wonder about certain things. I really like to come to those kinds of questions on my own. The ending really picked up and caught my interest. The story closes in a satisfying way with no big cliff hanger, but there are missions left to be accomplished.

Overall, it was a good dystopian that had me entertained, especially towards the end, but I found too many things spelled out for me and some plot points not explained all the way.

Content Rating: Medium, for crude sexual references and brutal violence. There is also a cult that uses religious terms that could be offensive to some. (It only made me a little uncomfortable).

I received this book for review from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, in exchange for an honest review. I was not told what to say, I was not paid to write this review and all the opinions expressed are my own.