Title: The 100
(The Hundred #1)
Author: Kass Morgan
Genre: YA, Dystopia, Romance
First published: August 29th 2013
Finished reading: July 2nd 2015
Pages: 323
“The rain was only water, and there was no such thing as a clean start. That was the thing with secrets – you had to carry them with you forever, no matter what the cost.”
I had to read a book a TV series was based on for a challenge and since I already had a copy of The 100 on my shelf I decided to just go ahead and read it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it right from the start, especially after reading a lot of mixed reviews. Unfortunately those feelings turned out to be genuine… I still like the general plot idea Kass Morgan used, but I wasn’t convinced by the characters or their actions. And then I’m not even talking about the TWO love triangles she decided to add to the story. Seriously, I’m becoming really frustrated by the fact that most YA novels seem to have a love triangle. The whole Glass-Luke-Camille triangle was still acceptable, but Clarke-Wells-Bellamy? Not so much. I mean Clarke goes from loving Wells one minute to wanting to be with Bellamy the next… And it didn’t even add anything interesting to the story. The prose was ok, although the many flashbacks started to bother me at some point. But like I said, the general plot is still quite interesting. Still, no recommendation from me for this one.
After a nuclear war nobody has been on Earth in centuries, living on spaceships to avoid the radioactive surface. But supplies are running out and they have decided to send one hundred underage criminals back to Earth with a mission: discover if it is safe for the rest of the population to return to the planet. The kids are forced to go and nobody has a way of finding out if they survive… But it turns out that the planet is safe again after all. Now the bunch of criminals have to find out how to survive in a place they only know from stories, and the fact that they can’t really trust each other doesn’t really help either. Meanwhile, back on the spaceships time is running out…
I really wanted to like this one. It sounded like a great story and even though I haven’t seen the TV series myself, I’ve heard many positive comments about it… But I can’t say I was impressed by The 100. The two love triangles were a huge setback and didn’t really add anything to the story, and I wasn’t too convinced by most characters either. I had mixed experiences with the prose: I liked the many Earth descriptions from the point of view of someone who experiences things from the first time. But there were too many flashbacks that didn’t always add to the story. In short, I can’t say I enjoyed reading this novel by Kass Morgan and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you don’t mind love triangles and sometimes annoying characters and prose.
It’s a shame the book didn’t live up to expectations! I haven’t read it, but I have seen the TV show and I’m addicted to it 🙂
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I haven’t seen the TV series yet, but I might watch the first few chapters at some point to see if I like it better than the book. 🙂
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It’s too bad you didn’t enjoy this one! I’ve been looking forward to reading it, especially since I’ve started to watch a few episodes of the show. Great review though, as always! 😉
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Thanks! I really have to watch the show so I can see if I like it better than the book… I really wanted to like this one!
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TWO love triangles?! Most of the time one is already bad enough!
I’ve heard many negative things about this book, so I don’t think I’ll read it. I’ve only heard positive things about the tv show though, so I do think I’m going to give that one a shot 🙂
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Definitely don’t, it’s not worth it… It looks like the TV series is better though, so I might watch a few episodes to see what it’s like.
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