Why call it a productive week: not only that I'm getting halfway through season 8 of How I Met Your Mother, but I also managed to finish Skyhunter by Marie Lu today. Considering the proof, I'm beginning to think that I'm getting more and more competent in carving out my free time.
Skyhunter follows the story where in the future all countries have been conquered by The Karensa Federation except for the last free nation called Mara. As a refugee from Basea who has sought the last standing land for home and made herself a Striker protecting it, Talin refuses to give up even the tiniest hope. Facing unnatural creatures sent by the Federation called the Ghost, Talin fights alongside her best friends—Corian, Adena, and Jeran—and the other Strikers from the Inner City.
One day, when a prisoner from the Federation is captured and brought to face his sentence in the city hall, something inside Talin stirs. There is something about the prisoner that captures her attention more than it should have. The same thing pushes her forward to save someone she doesn't know then. Someone who may become a major breakthrough in this war against the Federation.
As a young adult dystopian book, Skyhunter was a quick, good read. I couldn't believe that I didn't realize it when I read the Warcross duology last year, but Marie Lu has this simplistic, beautiful writing style that is quite impossible to go by unnoticed. I would go as far as to say that I'd be happy to read her descriptive paragraphs all day. She certainly has a way to make her writing seems effortless but still very rich in details.
The main characters in this book were rather well liked in terms of personality also. In addition to that, Talin, Red, Adena, and Jeran obviously made a very great team. I also liked the fact that the chemistry was not at all forced just for the sake of romance, that we only got a brief idea of Talin and Red being together in the future not more than a couple scenes. Perhaps their relationship would be further explored in the second installment, perhaps it would take longer than that—either way, it's great to see it develop gradually considering their current condition and all.
Now, I wouldn't say the pace of the story was fast, but to claim it was slow felt wrong too. The first 50% felt a bit too long while somehow at the same time it did not. If it makes sense, I'll describe it as too fast and too slow all together, and because of this, some scenes felt particularly underdeveloped (for instance, please stop reading if you haven't read the book yet: isn't it a bit hard to believe that Adena could figure out 'the cure' to the Ghosts overnight?). The plot picked up and got more interesting after that, but my curiosity still didn't surface like it usually would.
So in my opinion, Skyhunter was an interesting book to read. It contained everything that was necessary for a great young adult book though sadly I wasn't compelled to drop everything I was doing just to continue it. I even took quite a lot of breaks in between my reading because of the exact same reason. In conclusion, I will definitely pick up another book by Marie Lu in the future (I love her Warcross duology so much!), but I still am not very certain whether or not I'll make a beeline for the second installment when it comes out next month.
Actual rating: 3.4★
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