Atlantia by Ally Condie || Book Review

Hey Guys! It is Max here and today, I will be doing a book review for Atlantia by Ally Condie. You guys may know Ally Condie by reading her other book trilogy called Matched. I, personally, have not read that trilogy before reading this book but I will be getting on with it soon because I (would not say loved so…) liked this book so much! 

Atlantia is a Young Adult, Science Fiction + Dystopian standalone novel following Rio, the protagonist and her other twin sister as each of them chooses a different destiny, a different life even though they wish they could switch places. 

So, without further ado, let us get into the review!

*Note: All thoughts and opinions are on my own and this is a spoiler-free review!*

I really love the cover for this book! It looks f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s-!

“Under star-dark seas and skies of gold
  Live those Above and those Below
  They sing and weep, both high and deep
  While over and under the ocean rolls” – Atlantia, Ally Condie.

Synopsis:

Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamed of the sand and sky Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single moment, all Rio’s hopes for the future are shattered when her twin sister, Bay, makes an unexpected choice, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful siren voice she has long silenced—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own destiny, and the corrupted system constructed to govern the Divide between land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

My thoughts: Introduction

Let us start off with the cover of the book. I was a little disappointed because I originally thought that this book was going to be about a tale of mermaids. But after I read the synopsis for the book, I was intrigued by the originality of the story! So, I bought this book and started reading it and it did not disappoint.

The world building for this book was great and unique! While Ally was building the world and the atmosphere around this book, she had also included the personalities of the people around the protagonist and some mythology. Some mythology such as Sirens. I found the sirens part to be shocking because I did not expect that to pop out. That was really an interesting way to mix the genres and the story together! Also, like all of you can already guess, I liked the result for this book!

I have to say that some scenes in the book actually dragged. It dragged for pages after pages, making my poor eyes teared up. Although, I did enjoy a few scenes that dragged because those scenes that I enjoyed actually made sense and I wanted them to be longer than long! But, the rest of the scenes that dragged bored me to tears. So, overall for the dragging part, I am giving it a 31/100%.

The pacing for this book was quick! Even though it took me a week to finish it because of school. This book will pick back up where you left off and you would not even forget about the story after a few busy days so.. I highly recommend you all to give this book a shot. 

I really liked the relationship between Rio and her sister, Bay. I felt the love and tension between them and it actually shocked me when Bay had decided to [Spoiler removed] Rio [Spoiler removed]. 

Those above were mostly the things that I enjoyed about the book. Now, let us move on with the things that I disliked, shall we?

I hated the love interest in this book. It made no sense and it felt like instant love even though their love kind of progressed overtime. Usually, I would love to read about instant love if it is done right, but this book does it all wrong! I just can’t, I am sorry. It just felt unreal and flat to me.

The flashbacks in this book felt like it was forced to make the readers to understand what Rio’s mother had been through as the Minister. Some of the flashbacks in this book are not needed and some are necessary but most of them, I would say 40% of them are not needed.

Remember the things that I said about the dragging scenes earlier on? Yep, one of them was about her crying for ages. I know, she had been through a lot but crying in almost every chapters in the book? No. Please, stop. Stop..

Now, let us move on to the writing style for this book.

Writing:

The writing style for this book was beautiful, gorgeous and pretty. Yes, I just used the synonyms for beautiful.. (Why did I do that?) But, what I was actually trying to say is her writing style for this book was crisp, lyrical and articulate. 

Her descriptions around the protagonist, Rio was fantastic. I loved how Ally described the world around Rio, she made it sound so real and so beautiful that I wish I can visit the place one day.

The characters that she had created felt real and raw and innocent that I sincerely wish that they were my friends. Ever since I have finished the book, the characters from the book visited one of my dream and they talked to me like I am their old friend. Just, beautiful characterization!

I loved how, like I have said earlier, Ally had written about the relationship between Rio and her twin sister, Bay. It was beautiful and unique because I have not really read any books about twins other than Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (Which I loved).

Now, let us move on to the characters section!

Characters:

Rio: I did not really like her as a character in this book, to be honest. Because, number one, she cried in almost every chapter in the book and number two, she was a pretty weak character but I loved her determination to get to her sister and her pretty kick-ass attitude towards the others.

Maire: I did not trust her in the beginning of the book. Heck, I did not even like her in the beginning of the book. But, when I reached to the end of the book, I started to like her bits by bits because of her character redemption. So, yes. I liked Maire as a character now.

Bay: She was the only one that I actually loved as a character in this book. She was brave, strong and she had a purpose in life: to protect her sister! I really enjoyed reading about her.

True: I liked him. But, unfortunately, I did not like the love interest between him and Rio in this book. He was a little shy, kind, protective (A little too protective, actually) and funny at times. Even though I disliked the love interest, I still liked him as a character in this book.

Overall:

I am giving this book a 70%. It was great but it did not blow my mind away.

“We are not lost mermaids with seaweed hair and coins for eyes, but human girls, alive and found.
We are sisters, and we did not drown.”- Atlantia, Ally Condie.

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This is the end of my spoiler-free review for Atlantia by Ally Condie! I hope you all enjoyed it and follow me with your email/wordpress account to get notifications when I post a new article! Bye!