Meritropolis

CUSTOMER REVIEW



This is a dystopia book that reminds me mostly of Maze Runner and Divergent, with perhaps a bit of The Giver thrown in. The plot, however, seems more original. Charley is a protagonist with his fair share of issues, including a serious issue with anger management and perhaps a touch of the warrior gene. He is something of an avenging angel to the people of the city with an impossibly high aptitude for fighting, hunting, and supposedly a high intelligence (that I really saw no evidence of him using). Despite these capabilities, he is not a bully, but views the system in which he lives as evil. His greatest desire is to take the system - and the one responsible for the murder of his brother - down. He does not care what he has to do to achieve this, even if it means hurting a few people in his way.

The story here is not exclusively told through Charley's eyes, as there are brief scenes/plot points that are revealed through third-person closed/limited through other characters, including an engineer, the city commander, a femme fatal, mafia leader, average citizen, and Charley's best friend. This can be a little frustrating since none of these characters are given as much space as Charley and sometimes they seem to interrupt the flow of the story-telling. It would also be completely possible to tell the story without relying upon changing the narrator so many times. Also, there do seem to be several gaps in Charley's understanding of what is going on around him - he is flabbergasted by the motives of several characters when his high IQ should probably be aiding him in figuring that out.

Several people in this book endure tremendous hardship by losing loved ones, but everyone complies because they believe the system in place is protecting them. This is an interesting social commentary, and there are some religious overtones as well as several characters claim to have a belief in God. This in itself makes the book an interesting read and perfect for social conversation between younger readers. I think that gives the books some value.

I do feel let down by two things: the animal combinations sound very, very cool but I was expecting (because of the cover) some sort of minotaur/animal-human combinations. There were none of those. Also, I really wanted more information about the first female character introduced (through her own third-person narrative) because she seemed interesting and a decent foil of the main protagonist, but her perspective was not at all integral to this plot. Perhaps she will be more important in further books.

All in all, I think this book/series shows promise but it did seem lacking in a few areas in terms of development of main character and justification for the several perspectives given throughout the book. I would read the second book in the series to see if it better tied together the threads left undone in Meritropolis. Also, warning: book ends on a cliffhanger.

For the sensitive reader: There are mentions of deliberate murders, forced abortions, and violence including training, fights, hunting sequences, and battles.

I received a free copy of this book from Story Cartel in exchange for my honest review.