DNF Review – Possession (Possession, Book 1) by Elana Johnson (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia/Science Fiction
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1442421257
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Possession series
Source: Bought
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.

But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they’re set on convincing Vi to become one of them….starting by brainwashed Zenn. Vi can’t leave Zenn in the Thinkers’ hands, but she’s wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous: everything Zenn’s not. Vi can’t quite trust Jag and can’t quite resist him, but she also can’t give up on Zenn.

This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.”

This is the first book in the Possession trilogy. I got through the first 100 pages of this book and then decided to stop reading it. The whole book was very juvenile sounding; the writing was choppy and didn’t flow well and the characters and story were not at all engaging.

I really struggled with this author’s writing style it was just to choppy and simple. I felt like I was reading a “learning to read” book at times; very short simple sentences and dialogue that are grammatically correct but sound awkward. Scenes and characters are almost impossible to picture because of the lack of description and for some reason the author likes to discuss people’s hair a lot.

I picked this up a number of years ago when I was in my YA dystopian phase. I am pretty sick of YA dystopias at this point and this book definitely did not have anything special to recommend it. Pretty typical story about a girl who lives in a dystopian society and is matched with a certain boy. However, she keeps breaking the rules of the Goodies and gets sent to the Badlands to live with the Baddies. There is a very blatant love triangle going on almost right from the beginning.

Overall this wasn’t something I enjoyed and I wouldn’t recommend. None of this is very good technically or creatively.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge