Those of you who've been following me for some time might just know that I'm always looking for nice YA Dystopian stories, preferably in some original setting. The island of Lanai (in Hawaii) definitely makes for one.
I find this book a hard one to judge. I really wanted to like it, not just because of the setting but also because it has dragons. Spirit dragons, but dragons nevertheless. The premise is very good as well. As technology is destroyed, can a community survive? Especially one that is already isolated and dependent on the other Hawaiian island and the American mainland to provide for most of it's necessities. Though this of course isn't a problem that would only affect islands like Lanai, I think many places, including where I live, are heavily dependent on import of food, even though that we would have more means to find out what happened (at least to Europe).
But that's about it. It's never explained what this disaster is that's causing all these problems. And although it helps to connect to the characters (which was difficult by the way) as they don't know either, I like it when there's at least some kind of explanation given. The rest is less original. Main character with a dead mother and alcoholic/abusive father, a quest, and did I mention the plain crash?
All in all, it was quite enjoyable to read but it fell a bit short for me eventually. I'd expected more of it. Especially after reading a lot of very enthusiastic reviews. Very interesting premise, but the execution could have been better.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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