Saturday, December 10, 2011

Outside, by Shalini Boland


The world in which Riley lives is one quite different from our own, but it is the only one she has known.  The world is in upheaval, and the only way to insure your safety is to stay within the perimeters.  Riley knows this, yet when her sister is murdered and the suspect is not apprehended, she and her neighbor and love interest Luc leave the perimeter in search of justice.  What Riley finds, instead, is a truth to terrible to comprehend.

This book, in no uncertain terms, messed with my head (in a good way).  The setting of a post-apocalyptic world made me shudder to think that it could really end up being that way.  One just never knows.  I really enjoyed the storyworld that the author created, as well as the backstory to explain how things got so globally screwed up.

I really enjoyed the character development as well.  I enjoyed having two stories running parallel, it forced me to pay closer attention, and honestly I never caught on to how the stories were related.  When the truths are revealed at the end of the book, I was surprised, and impressed with how the author molded them together to form the larger overall plot.

Apparently this is the first in a series, and while I am interested to see where the series goes from here, I can safely say this functions quite well as a stand alone novel as well.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author.



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