Book Description
The controlling and secretive New American Government has created a series of perfectly compliant, genetically modified human soldiers. Emotion, Independent thought and all forms of communication are forbidden. Their only purpose is to obey.
Used as a pawn in somebody else's escape plan, Edel finds herself with unexpected freedom. She has been taught everything she needs to survive- except how to be human.
Danny is one of Harpton Main's rich elite, but beneath the shiny surface of his perfect world lies a dangerous secret, frequent bouts of uncontrollable rage and endless questions about his origins.
A chance encounter with Edel leads to more questions than answers, and Danny will stop at nothing to discover the truth about himself.
Book Review
Review for 'Almost Human' by Ashleigh Reverie.
Read and reviewed for Ashleigh Reverie.
Publication date 8th February 2022.
This is the first book I have read by this author. It is also the first book in the 'Almost Human' series.
This novel consists of a prologue and 29 chapters.
The chapters are a mixture of length ranging from short to medium and some long in length so possible to read 'just one more chapter' before bed...OK, I know yeah right, but still just in case!
This book is written in third person perspective with the protagonists being Jay, Edel, Frank, Danny and Gemma. The benefits of third person perspective with multiple protagonists are that it let's you see the bigger picture of what's going on and you get to know more characters more, what they are thinking and what they are doing. It feels like you get to see the whole picture and not miss out in anything.
'Almost Human' discusses some topics that may trigger or upset some readers or may not be suitable for others. I like to point this out ahead of time in my reviews so you can judge if this book is for you or not. In this book Ashleigh discusses/includes murder of babies.
OMG!!! WELL THAT WAS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING AT ALL!!! ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK AND WHAT AN ENDING!!
This book is extremely well written with vivid descriptions that really put you in the storyline, feeling the hair on your arms raise and putting you on the edge of your seat!!!
As previously mentioned this book was not what I expected when I read the synopsis. I was expecting there to be alot more scifi. Now, I must admit I am not a massive fan of scifi but I'm an eclectic reader and will give most books a try. I would say this book is more dystopia than scifi so if you are a dystopia fan and not a Sci fi fan please give this book a read. Trust me, you really won't regret it!! In fact, it doesn't matter what genre you like to read give it a read!!!
The prologue is extremely hard to read and I have found that since I have become a mother I struggle even more to anything that talks about the death of babies/toddlers/children. If you think you wouldn't be able to read this then my advice is just to skip the prologue rather than miss out on the whole book. There is another part later in the book thay you may also want to skip over, it was heartbreaking to read but you kind of get an idea on what is about to happen so when you get to it just skip a few sentences.
This book is, basically, about the fact that several human experiments have escaped from what is essentially a government funded torture station. The government warns people that these experiments are dangerous and to hand them in. Now, while, these "experiments" can become dangerous during meltdowns and struggle with society they are not as bad as the government makes out. In fact, the descriptions of how they felt sounded very similar to autistic traits and made me have more of an understanding with what goes on in the mind of someone who has autism in regards to lots of sounds, lights, etc. Whether Ashleigh intended to do this I am not sure but regardless of whether it was intentional or not I actually thought it was absolutely fantastic! Anyway, on with explaining the storyline a bit. I am trying not to say too much as I don't want to give too much away but it is scarily realistic in some areas such as the way immigrants and other races are treated in the future and it wouldn't shock me at all if the world did come to this. There are basically 2 different parts of New America. There is the legitimate part where people are in higher paid roles, can live, work, shop, etc as they wish. They all have homes as we do and can walk around freely. Then there are the cashers who are not allowed ID's meaning they cannot access bank cards, online and live in homes that sometimes have no gas and electric or no water or live in the slums. These are mainly immigrants and those from different races. That is the setting of the storyline.
Moving on to the characters. Again, I'll try not to give too much away. The main books starts with Jay who is struggling with the anniversary of his girlfriends death. I really liked Jay and thought he had a heart of gold. He is going through a rough patch when he comes to the aid of one of Edel. Later we meet Danny who is one of the richest elites and his girlfriend Gemma who is a casher. Everything explodes when the lives of these characters all collide and you get taken on a rollercoaster ride of love, heartbreak, twists, tension, suspense, horror and so, so much more!!! I will admit that the codes in the beginning were confusing and I was worried this was going to continue throughout the storyline but I needn't have worried as they weren't used as often as I thought they may be.
The ending was an absolutely explosive twist that I did not see coming at all. What an shocking cliff hanger!!! I was genuinely gobsmacked and I really cannot wait to get hooked into book 2 'Almost Human: Evolution'.
This is one of the BEST dystopia novels I have ever read and certainly the Best In about 10 years!!!! This book really is a true page turner that I picked up this morning and could not put it down until I finished!!!
Well done Ashleigh on an absolutely fantastic succeess and here is to what is guaranteed to be many more 🥂
Overall a heart racing, page turning and explosive dystopian must read!!!
Genres covered in this book include Genetic Engineering Science Fiction, Dystopian Science Fiction, Genetic Engineering Fiction, Dystopian and Science Fiction amongst others.
359 pages
This book is just £3.99 to purchase on kindle or free on kindle unlimited (at time of review) via Amazon which I think is an absolute bargain for this book!!!
Rated 5/5 (I LOVED it ) on Goodreads, Instagram, Amazon UK and Amazon US and on over 30 Facebook pages plus my blog on Facebook.
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Author Bio
Ashleigh Reverie lives in the North of England with her husband and two children. She has silently nursed an obsession with the characters in her books for two decades before she decided to write them down. When she isn't working hard on writing her stories, she is usually asleep in her hammock dreaming up new ones.
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