Book Review: Defiance by C. J. Redwine

Defiance by C. J. Redwine
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: Balzer + Bray 
Pages: 416
Received: ARC from publisher, via Edelweiss
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Summary

From Goodreads:

Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city’s brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses, host dinner parties, and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father’s apprentice, Logan—the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same boy who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city’s top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor’s impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can’t be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

Review

Two people talking!

Mostly this was ok. It was nice getting to see the story from both points of view, and given how events transpire, I really appreciated that I wasn't cut out of the action like I would have been if there was only one POV. I also can't really choose whose voice I would want to see cut, because I liked having both of them there.

Buutt, how did it score on the Who's Talking Test? Eh, ok. Logan runs a lot of "best case/worst case scenarios" in his head, and while that kind of got a little annoying after a while, it was a great indicator that he was the narrator in that scene (which, really, that's not the best indicator).

Their voices were pretty similar but there was something about their personalities that mostly came through even if they were using similar words. Still though, there were a few times were I couldn't tell who was speaking without plot clues to help me out.

Although, if the character was doing something stupid, that was a clear sign that it was Rachel I was reading about.

Rachel is Dawn

Remember in Buffy season seven (or was it six?) when the tv show people briefly tried to convince us that Dawn wasn't an annoying Skipper doll anymore and she was now a full-fledged Barbie, complete with awesomely blown-out hair and trendy clothes?

Well, I wasn't buying it. And, ok, maybe once or twice I thought to myself that I wish my hair had bounce like Dawn's, but I never admitted that out loud and as soon as she opened her whiny kid-sister mouth the illusion was shattered and she went straight back to the land of the flat-footed Skipper.

That's Rachel. 

Look, I totally GET where she's coming from with wanting to find her missing dad and all. And on an emotional level, I've got her back. But reading about her? Oh please, her schtick got old quick.

She kept rushing head-long into these really impulsive, boneheaded decisions and I'm not sure if I was supposed to see her as "strong and intrepid," but I pretty much just saw her as bratty Dawn trying to do things best left to the smarter Scooby Gang.

Even more annoying was the constant reminder that I'm supposed to be impressed by her. She's an awesome fighter! She's...I don't know, other cool things! Logan's swooning! Yeah, I wasn't buying it. Especially since Rachel totally chokes under pressure. Yay.

There was a lot of talk about Rachel and what she was (badass, hardened warrior, heart of stone), but nothing about her characterization actually backed any of this up, so it was even more annoying to read over and over and over again.

I want to shower with him!

Ok, that's what I *thought* I had written in my notes, but they actually said "I want to shower him with cool points!" And, unfortunately, only the latter is a statement I can stand behind. Because much as Logan is filled to the brim with awesome, that certain spark of something was missing for me.

But back to the coolness for a sec. Logan is, oh my, he's a total dreamboat. He's SMART. Like, crazy, super, genius smart in that always-creating-cool-gadgets-and-master-plans kind of smart. I could always count on Logan to have a plan and I never had to mentally scold him for doing something dumb. He even surprised me a few times with how clever he turned out to be. I give him ALL the gold stars.

Except, what about the swoon? I don't know what went wrong here. Everything about Logan adds up to be amazing and I should be falling all over myself for him, but, but, I really wasn't. Maybe it was Rachel? Because she's totally unworthy. But, no, I should have still swooned. So I'm really not sure what the problem was.

I think part of it was that I was all primed for a hate-turned-love romance with lots of romantic tension, and that didn't really happen. I mean, I did, but it also kind of didn't. They start out at kinda hate (though hate is too strong a word), but they jump toward the love side of things a bit too quickly for my tastes and so the tension was never really there. At least they jump there because of mutual respect though, so that was nice.

And there weren't any love triangles. Whew. 

Readjust your expectations

I'm so tired of blurbs lying to me. What really happened isn't bad at all, actually, it's pretty great. But it took me a long time to warm up to what was actually happening and stop pining after what I was expecting to happen and that seriously lowered my enjoyment. So what actually happened?

Based on the blurb I was expecting Logan and Rachel to leave the safety of their village pretty early on and venture outside the wall together. NOT EVEN CLOSE. It takes more than half the book for anyone to leave, and when they do, they don't leave together.

For the longest time I was getting real antsy wondering when in the world they were going to leave and get with the questing part of the book. So needless to say I wasn't exactly taking the time to enjoy the slower unraveling of the story. Which isn't to say it's SLOW, because it's not. Lots of stuff happens during this time and the author did a great job setting up the world.

I really grew to hate the commander (he reminded me of President Snow) on a level I wouldn't have if the author had just quickly told me he was a bad man and moved on. I got to know Logan and Rachel more this way and see how they fit in with their world. I also now see how this section was essential in setting up the events that will happen in the sequel. I appreciated all the time spent here and I wish I could have enjoyed it more at the time (which I totally would have if it hadn't have been for that stupid blurb).

Also, this is a dragon book! I didn't see that coming at all! (Though, I couldn't help giggling every single time the dragon was referred to as The Cursed One. Oh noes!!) 

My new favorite genre!

So, it's not new new, because I've already fallen in love with it before, but I am still completely in love with this new fantasy-dystopia trend! And, you know what, despite my great love for vague medieval-ish fantasy villages, I can totally buy that they harbor a dystopian hell hole (peasantry for the win! Erm, NOOOOO). So, it works.

It also works because there are already swords and rabble and stuff, so it's practically begging for an uprising. And the medieval jail cell? The medieval village overseer? Gah, how did people not think of combining these genres sooner?!

Also, dragons. 

Oh, and you know what I REALLY super appreciated? This isn't a dystopian trilogy where the first part is the boring "slow awakening" where the MC spends eternity figuring out that their land sucks. Thankfully, C. J. Redwine doesn't keep with that mold at all. It's more like The Hunger Games where Katniss always knew things were messed up, but she slowly became more empowered to actually do something about changing the system instead of just subverting it. 

C. J. Redwine amps the coolness up a notch more by adding whiz-bang technology and while I don't really understand how it works in this world, it's still pretty cool. I mean, there are no toaster ovens, but there are electronic tracking devices?? I would maybe buy the lack of toaster strudel-heating devices as an example of the despotic government, but they had tasty cakes in their world (like big sticky buns of awesome), so this just isn't adding up.

But, yes, it is cool. Mostly because Logan is a whiz-bang technology genius. A character might think to themselves, gee, wouldn't it be great if I had magnetic suction thingies so I could scale that wall? And Logan's all like, MADE THAT, pssshhaw. Only, you know, he's cool about it (not like me, I'd totally brag. And probably end up in jail. But Logan is not thwarted by mere jail cell walls). And what is it about a guy and controlled explosions that's so attractive? Because I think I swooned the most for Logan when he was blowing stuff up.

So, in conclusion, I might have wondered a little about how these gadgets were actually supposed to work and why if they were present, why weren't other things present....but really what commanded my attention was how these inventions made my heart flutter for Logan.

Bottom line

This isn't a perfect book, but I liked it enough that I toyed with giving it four stars (Rachel's Dawn-ness and the emo quirky tree people squelched that urge, but, but Logan, and dragons, and FANTASY DYSTOPIA!).

The book ends at a good point, but it's totally the middle of the story. A few questions were answered (and a few of them were, like, DUH FINALLY!) but for the most part there are a lot more questions introduced. Also, the end leaves our heroes in a whole lot of WTH and they need to figure out how they're going to deal with the massive load of Oh Crap they've just been handed. But they're up for it (at least, Logan is) and I'm definitely tagging along for part two. 

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Defiance that I haven't addressed?
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