REVIEW: The City Center by: Simone Pond

Synopsis: 

Ava didn't want to be right. Not about her city. Not about their leader, Chief Morray. But when Joseph gives her a secret journal from the past, the truth is revealed. She escapes with Joseph to the Outside, sending Chief Morray on an obsessive pursuit to retrieve his property. Ava has to decide if she should keep running, or return to the city center to save her people.

Review:

Ava is in the running to be in the next Royal Court and has been the favorite for many years to be the next Queen. The only thing is , that unlike everyone else, she really couldn't care less and doesn't want to be the Queen or even in the Royal Court. Ava can tell she's not like everyone else, she feels and sees things differently. Her entire world and everything she has ever known is turned upside down the minuet that the Outsider, Joseph, breaks into her City and gives her a journal. Upon reading the journal, Ava has countless questions and the only way she can get answers is to leave the only place she has ever known and escape to the Outside with Joseph. Of course that doesn't sit well with Chief Morray and he launches a huge manhunt to find her.

 It took me a couple of chapters to get into the story but after that I was hooked. Simone Pond spun a dystopian that was utterly captivating. The futuristic technology within this world was absolutely amazing, there were microchips implanted in the index finger that linked the characters to the ''internet'' and a wide array of information , everything is run off of huge solar panels, the living quarters are synced to the person living there and many, many more things. Simone Pond constructed an amazing world.

Ava was a fun character to follow. She questioned the ways of her world from the beginning and knew she was different because of it. Her absolute love and devotion for her best friend Delilah was refreshing. 

Delilah is Ava's best friend but because of their class differences they're unable to spend more than a few fleeting moments here and there. I would have loved a chance to see more interactions between Delilah and Ava. 

From the moment that Joseph is introduced to the reader you get the sense that he's  a strong willed individual. Willing to risk his very life he breaks into the walled City to pass on some information that he thinks could save Ava's people. I really liked Joseph's character, he seemed really easy to get along with.

Chief Morray is the villain in the story. To be honest the dude kinda creeped me out. He develops a creepy  stalker type obsession with Ava and knows no boundaries when it comes to getting her back into the City. His creep factor went up tremendously the more you learn about the things that he does to the citizens of the City unbeknownst to them.

I felt that Ava and Joseph's relationship was a little rushed. It worked for the story but I personally would have loved to see it develop over a period of time. There was no love triangle in the book which was a little refreshing. I mean don't get me wrong I love a good love triangle but it was a nice change for me and Simone Pond did a wonderful job in writing it. 

I'll try not to get to off topic here but I've heard where there are a few if not a lot of people comparing The City Center to The Hunger Games, and as a huge fan of THG I just don't see it. The only similarities I've noticed are that both books are dystopians and both main characters are oppressed by their governments. Ava and Katniss have totally different personalities and go through different struggles in which they handle those struggles in completely different ways.

 The City Center is a well pace, well written, exciting read. All in all I really enjoyed The City Center by Simone Pond and highly recommend it. I feel it is suitable for preteens and up, there is no foul language, a small amount of violence towards the end but nothing to worry about, and a PG rated romance. 


(C) 2016 Andrea Hatfield All Rights Reserved

Find The City Center here at Amazon.com