The PledgeIn the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed. Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.
I loved this book. I think I'm fully convinced of the dystopian genre and I have fully embraced it. However, faeries are still my favorite and now, dystopian is my second.
I fully embraced reading this book as I whiled away a Sunday afternoon. No breaks. No pauses. I even brought my read to the bathroom... Yeah, I think you didn't have to know that. But it was that addicting - I never put it down. It certainly deserves to be inducted into the high echelons of all things dystopian. It was quite different since I imagined everything dystopian to be futuristic and science-y (including the creation of something mythical as a vampire is attributed to a virus) but The Pledge, however, delved into magic and extraordinary abilities and I wondered how it could be? Was The Pledge still dealing within our world, only the future of our world or is it set in an alternative world altogether?
In addition, and I think I must put here since I have voiced out my dislike of it in the past - insta-love. It didn't take Max a long time to fall in love with Charlie; and Charlie while not voicing her own feelings, she didn't deny that there was something big between them. Sparks did literally flow between them as shown in the last parts. *giggles* I realized then that I adjust my notions of what I think is insta-love - and it's all in the execution of this delicate matter, how realistic it is portrayed given the nature of the characters and the world they live in and how the characters confront and resolve their feelings. While I enjoy general mushiness, googly-eyes and professions of undying love, there is such a thing as too much and barf-inducing. But I didn't read it in The Pledge and I was convinced about Max and Charlie. I think I might have a new YA-dystopian crush in Max. Four, you have a competition.
sounds interesting. fantasy dystopia . gr8 review
ReplyDelete