Official Review: Rise from the Ashes: Lena's Story
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Lucy
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Official Review: Rise from the Ashes: Lena's Story
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Rise From The Ashes: Lena's Story" by Laura Franklin.]
This novel is probably best defined a short YA dystopian paranormal romance. It was not clear from the book description that this aimed at a teenage or YA readership, but the cover and rough age of the main protagonists would indicate a target market of a younger readership. The novel is around 50,000 words long, so (for me anyway) a very quick read, and would appear to be the first in a series of books. The book is available on Amazon.
Western civilization has collapsed in the wake of a coordinated mass-attack by the Taliban, aided by drugs cartels from Latin America. Fifty to seventy-five per cent of the population has perished from the virus-laden toxic gasses. The story tracks the journey of Lena, a college student who has survived the attack, who meets up with her soul mate, Matt, a private in the US Army. Following the last transmitted orders of the US Military to make their way to Burlington, Lena and Matt, who have discovered surviving the attack has also given them enhanced abilities, are joined by a larger group and lead their people to safety. Meanwhile, Father Steve, leads his own group to the same destination, struggling with his spiritual destiny and temporal responsibilities.The predominant themes is survival resurrection, and the triumph of love over fear.
This story felt a little like a first draft for a number of reasons. The name of the Latin America country referred to throughout the book is ‘Colombia’, not ‘Columbia’ - I don’t know why this error bothered me as much as it did. There was also a glaring POV shift mid scene in Chapter Eight.
The plot felt a little lacking as the groups neared their destination, it needed some crisis, adventure or attack to overcome just before resolution at the end. I also felt that the other characters needed some more development to truly bring them to life. However, there is sufficient warmth and depth to the author’s character-building to make me genuinely care whether they survived or not.
I felt there were some “holes” in the dystopian narrative. What were the motivations of the Taliban? Invasion? Why would they want to invade Europe and America? Global conquest is not the Taliban’s goal. Why would drug lords destroy their most lucrative markets? Why would Latin America drug cartels get in with the Taliban for the purpose of invasion/destruction? For this reason I think that either the author should have researched her bad guys a bit more, or invented new bad guys to fit with the dystopian myth. Maybe we’ll find out in the next books why these things happened the way they did.
I really, really wanted to give this book more than two stars, mostly because I can see the promise this writer has as a YA novelist. Unfortunately I have to review this book as it is, not as it could be, and OnlineBookClub does not have a five-star rating system. If reviewing this on Amazon I would have given it three out of five stars, because all in all the author has not done a bad job. I think this book would be an outstanding YA adventure with a little more work with the plot and characterization; plus some content and copy-editing. Despite the niggles, as a YA romance, this novel actually does quite well, and I found myself warming to it. At its heart, this is a tale of the triumph of humanity in the face of adversity; and of the uncrushable resilience of the human spirit in the face of tragedy and despair. I think Laura Franklin shows tremendous promise as a YA writer, and I would like to read more of her work as her talent matures.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "Rise From The Ashes: Lena's Story" on Amazon
This novel is probably best defined a short YA dystopian paranormal romance. It was not clear from the book description that this aimed at a teenage or YA readership, but the cover and rough age of the main protagonists would indicate a target market of a younger readership. The novel is around 50,000 words long, so (for me anyway) a very quick read, and would appear to be the first in a series of books. The book is available on Amazon.
Western civilization has collapsed in the wake of a coordinated mass-attack by the Taliban, aided by drugs cartels from Latin America. Fifty to seventy-five per cent of the population has perished from the virus-laden toxic gasses. The story tracks the journey of Lena, a college student who has survived the attack, who meets up with her soul mate, Matt, a private in the US Army. Following the last transmitted orders of the US Military to make their way to Burlington, Lena and Matt, who have discovered surviving the attack has also given them enhanced abilities, are joined by a larger group and lead their people to safety. Meanwhile, Father Steve, leads his own group to the same destination, struggling with his spiritual destiny and temporal responsibilities.The predominant themes is survival resurrection, and the triumph of love over fear.
This story felt a little like a first draft for a number of reasons. The name of the Latin America country referred to throughout the book is ‘Colombia’, not ‘Columbia’ - I don’t know why this error bothered me as much as it did. There was also a glaring POV shift mid scene in Chapter Eight.
The plot felt a little lacking as the groups neared their destination, it needed some crisis, adventure or attack to overcome just before resolution at the end. I also felt that the other characters needed some more development to truly bring them to life. However, there is sufficient warmth and depth to the author’s character-building to make me genuinely care whether they survived or not.
I felt there were some “holes” in the dystopian narrative. What were the motivations of the Taliban? Invasion? Why would they want to invade Europe and America? Global conquest is not the Taliban’s goal. Why would drug lords destroy their most lucrative markets? Why would Latin America drug cartels get in with the Taliban for the purpose of invasion/destruction? For this reason I think that either the author should have researched her bad guys a bit more, or invented new bad guys to fit with the dystopian myth. Maybe we’ll find out in the next books why these things happened the way they did.
I really, really wanted to give this book more than two stars, mostly because I can see the promise this writer has as a YA novelist. Unfortunately I have to review this book as it is, not as it could be, and OnlineBookClub does not have a five-star rating system. If reviewing this on Amazon I would have given it three out of five stars, because all in all the author has not done a bad job. I think this book would be an outstanding YA adventure with a little more work with the plot and characterization; plus some content and copy-editing. Despite the niggles, as a YA romance, this novel actually does quite well, and I found myself warming to it. At its heart, this is a tale of the triumph of humanity in the face of adversity; and of the uncrushable resilience of the human spirit in the face of tragedy and despair. I think Laura Franklin shows tremendous promise as a YA writer, and I would like to read more of her work as her talent matures.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
***
Buy "Rise From The Ashes: Lena's Story" on Amazon
Latest Review: "PUWULO" by BD Gray
