Review: Contrition

Contrition by Lee Strauss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Zoe, Noah and the other plane crash survivors are stranded in the Arizona desert. They all have secrets and reasons to hide. But they’re not alone. Cyborg soldiers…war…humans and humanoids. Who can be trusted? Zoe’s life is in danger. Noah must make an impossible choice. Will their love survive their brokenness? Will the world as they know it end before they can find out?

Contrition began with the gang crass-landing in the desert and the first half was about their life there, for about a year. It had a slow start, with all the drama of Taylor-Zoe and Noah-Mary and I honestly was getting a bit tired of it. Then things picked up mid-way through the book, and I was like – now it finally got exciting. The pace quickened, and we were back in Sol City with rebels, humanoids and cyborgs having an agenda each. The ever-looming Big Bad Grandfather was just in for like a scene – I honestly didn’t understand why he made everyone quake in their boots so much. It’s not like he was President Snow (now that man knew how to be domineering dictator-level evil) and by the time you reach the end, things are at hyperspeed. The plot was literally wrapped up in 20 pages (I am not kidding).

The plotline of the book, as I said before, was pretty fast-paced and kept things interesting but the writing really couldn’t complement it. Throughout the book, I felt things were out of focus – and some trivial things were drawn out while the important stuff was rushed up in two lines. The epilogue was especially badly written – uninteresting and took the fun out of the book. The book was better than the previous two in the series, however, and thankfully it had more than just Zoe’s and Noah’s impossible-we-are-so-different-but-i-love-you story. They are not together, then back together only to be separated and then reunited. It was giving me whiplash – and it was particularly frustrating when the story had other aspects like the humanoids and rebels which could have been explored more than their tumultuous relationship. I know it is YA and romance is expected but damn, it is science fiction too and honestly, when the world is coming apart, you are not making out in a church pew for heaven’s sake! I really couldn’t expend the energy to ship them – I was tired by book 2 when all boys around Zoe were falling over her like dead leaves. The sad thing is, the story had potential and I loved the sci-fi parts, but not the other stuff.

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