The 100
Author: Kass Morgan
Release: September 3rd 2013
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Post-Apocalypse, YA
#1 in The 100 quartet
Sequels: Day 21 (#2), Homecoming (#3), Rebellion (#4)
Plot:
No one has set foot on Earth in centuries -- until now.
Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.
CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.
Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.
Review:
Okay, I'll be honest. I've read Bellarke fanfiction before, and you know what? Every single fic I have read so far has been better than this. I really can't believe this is the actual source material for The 100, for a show I genuinely love and think is great. Sure, it also has its flaws (fuck you, JRoth JRat), but it's truly amazing what they've done with this piece of garbage.
Let's talk about the writing. Think first grader style, simplistic, a step-by-step guide rattling down descriptions. She did this and that. Then Clarke did so and so. She felt very this and walked over to whomever. There is nothing particularly outstanding about Morgan's writing style, it just reads like a fucking grocery list. Boring and plain, like a piece of bubblegum you've been chewing on for hours and the dialogue was just pure, 100% uncensored cringe. And it dares to drag on and on with no actual, real plot. I'm not kidding, where's the plot? Where's the Grounders? Oh yeah, right, on the very last fucking page.
Not to mention those flashbacks disrupted the flow of the story hardcore. It wasn't enough to be reading a shitty story, no, you had to constantly be ripped out of the crap plot to be thrown into an even shittier, even more uninteresting flashback scene. No, thank you very much.
Similarly, the characters are horrible as well. I literally cannot even believe that these main characters are supposed to be related to the ones I fell in love with from the show. Even s1!Bellamy, who was far from an angel, would be appalled if he was ever confronted with book!Bellamy, who is a selfish, asshole-ish douchebag of the very first degree. Seriously, I hate this guy. Does Kass Morgan really think guys talk and think like this?
“It was almost as nice as being in bed with a girl. Maybe even better, because the sun would never ask him what he was thinking.”
No. No way. And why the heck is Octavia like fourteen years old and a drug addict? Who the fuck is Glass and why does she have absolutely no personality whatsoever and why is her plot even there? Like, what was the point and what the conflict for her? I still don't understand why she had this Romeo and Juliet-esque romance that tried to be so whimsical and epic with this guy from a poorer sector and most importantly, why was it so angsty? Why weren't they allowed to just be together, is there some kind of law forbidding people from different sectors to mingle? If so, Morgan certainly never explains, lmao. Anyway, and why is Clarke a too stupid to live heroine who is head over heels for Bellamy like two seconds after they landed on Earth and literally after two words they've spoken to each other? Then runs back to Wells, whom she supposedly hates, but then he fucks up again another two seconds afterwards and Clarke goes BACK to hating him and runs back to Bellamy? This is seriously so fucked up.
I won't lie, the reason I started reading this in the first place was because I wanted Bellarke to be canon for once. I am such huge Bellarke trash, but the way it happened in this novel? I am so happy it didn't turn out that way in the show, that they have stayed platonic and are only now, after years of slow-burn, slowly taking a turn into romantic. This book!relationship is nothing but a train wreck, with fuckboy Bellamy being manipulative and abusive and Clarke letting him.
“I thought you were different. But I was wrong. You're just another stupid Phoenix bitch who thinks she knows better than everyone else.” (...) He should have known it would only be a matter of time before Clarke went running back to Wells. He should never have kissed her in the woods.”
The fuck?
Honestly, this whole book is such a mess and such a waste of paper. I can't fathom how or why a person would ever write this stuff, look at it and go, "Yes. Good." It is so beyond me. I am really glad the CW was able to salvage it and turn this train wreck into something of quality.
“Tears were beginning to blur his vision, although if anyone called him out on it, he'd blame it on the smoke.”
Fuck you, the real, much better Bellamy Blake cries when he wants to and when he feels things, because emotions aren't inherently female and show!Bellamy is a pro at crushing the Alpha Male stereotype, which is fucking great.
(x)
No comments:
Post a Comment