Official Review: Adelais by Kathrine Webb

[CloudedRune]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Adelais" by Kathrine Webb.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Adelais follows the story of Pila, a young girl who, after a series of unexpected events, is separated from her home, friend and family in Sutra and ends up discovering and unravelling a lot of deceit and lies. Sutra is a gigantic underground sanctuary built below the Earth's surface after a chemical war destroyed life above it, leading to people seeking sanctuary from the toxic air underground. When Pila finds herself above ground and suddenly in the place that she has heard all sorts of dangerous stories about, her character is tested and pushed to limits she previously could not have imagined.

I very much enjoyed the beginning of the book and was initially enthusiastic about reading it. Unfortunately my enthusiasm faded somewhat as I progress through the story — while I found the opening (and the ending, to a lesser extent) interesting, the middle of the story felt disappointing and the plot quickly became predictable and, in places, somewhat bland. This really curbed my enjoyment of the book.

There were also a fair few noticeable grammatical errors at the beginning, but these became sparse later on in the book and were not really a major issue for me. I could understand and follow everything just fine despite them and they did not really take away from the overall reading experience.

I liked Pila as a character from the beginning and continued to like her throughout, despite her place in what I felt was an relatively predictable story. I did feel that her character development was strained in some parts of the story — in some parts it felt too quick, but in others it felt very well paced. I have mixed feelings about the character development in the book because of this inconsistency, but overall I thought that Pila's development as a protagonist fit well with the story, although it too was relatively predictable in places. I was less invested in the other characters but I could appreciate their roles in the story and their individual developments too.

I also enjoyed the world and settings of the book and was especially interested in Sutra, even though most of the story took place outside of it. The world building was nicely done and it was one of the less predictable elements of the book.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy dystopian fiction, although I think that many would find the story predictable like I did. This is really the biggest criticsm I have about the book, although it does improve towards the end and leads into a fairly interesting final big event that in turn leads onto what seems to be one of the main driving components of the the story in the sequel (which I do intend to read).

Overall, although I was disappointed with the predictable plot and some of the strained development, I feel like Adelais was worth reading despite its flaws. The setting is invigorating, Pila is an interesting character and I did enjoy the book in general and will be keeping an eye out for the next book in the series.

In conclusion, I rate Adelais 2 out of 4 stars.

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Adelais
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