Review – Rising (New World, Book 1) by Jennifer Wilson (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia
Length: 350 pages
Publisher: Oftomes Publishing
Release Date: August 4, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1619845459
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the New Rising series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

“Since witnessing her parents’ murders at the age of eleven, Phoenix’s only purpose in life has been to uphold her mother’s dying words – to be strong and survive. But surviving outside of The Walls – outside of The Sanctuary – is more like a drawn-out death sentence. A cruel and ruthless city, Tartarus is run by the Tribes whose motto is simple, “Join or die.”

Refusing to join and determined to live, Phoenix fights to survive in this savage world.

But who can she trust, when no one can be trusted? Not even herself…”

I got this book from one of my Owlcrates. This was a good dystopian novel. The story is well written and gritty and I enjoyed the characters too. It was easy to read and action-packed; which made the book hard to put down.

The story starts with Phoenix surviving in Tartarus which is a cruel city outside of the walls of Sanctuary. I enjoyed the idea of the different tribes and loved the ingenuity with which Phoenix survived. This part of the story was my favorite.

About one third of the way in, Phoenix meets up with some rebels who are determined to take down the Tribes and break into Sanctuary. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the first portion of the book. It feels like a lot of dystopian stories take this route; which is fine but not very unique.

Overall I enjoyed the book and if you are looking for a good fast-paced dystopian I would definitely check this series out. I probably won’t read the rest of the series because I am kind of dystopianed-out right now (and will be for awhile). The second half of the book was just way too typical dystopian for me.