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Half Lives

Half Lives is a YA sci-fi apocalyptic novel by Sara Grant.

It was an ordinary day for Icie.

She was being consoled by her best friend over the break-up text message she had gotten when her parents started to urgently reach out to her – telling her she had to get home immediately.

When she did, she didn’t expect to be strapped with cash and given a backpack full of survival supplies – but that’s what happened.

Then the gravity of what her parents were telling her started to sink in.

They were privy to knowledge that a major, world-changing bio-terror event would be happening very soon and they wanted to get to a bunker in Vegas before it happened.

Or rather, get Icie to a bunker.

Getting there and then staying there ends up being more terrifying than she could imagine.

Hundreds of years in the future, life has changed. People live and worship in the very bunker Icie is desperate to reach.

They don’t leave. They fear terrorists.

Their leader is Beckett, a teenager that has ties to Icie.

Generations apart, Icie and Beckett face the threat of extinction and the fight for survival…

For me, reading Half Lives was a given after having read Sara Grant’s debut, Dark Parties, a while back and LOVING it.

Here, though, I wasn’t as in love…

I was much more captivated and interested in Icie’s story than Beckett’s.

The future that was being presented was confusing and felt a little familiar – and its use of bizarre new vocabulary made it hard to take seriously at times.

Then when it came to Icie’s story there was a thrill, a danger, a horror that was represented well as we see the world swiftly fall apart and her try to follow her parents’ wishes despite it all. Yet… even her story began to wear a little thin.

I kept waiting for a bit more to happen. Though there were moments Half Lives still managed to give me chills and touch me, I never felt it reached its full potential.

The alternate point of view in the future really didn’t connect with me, which I think was one of the main reasons I had issues with it.

After giving it my best try, I finally began to skim the future side of things.

Sadly, I didn’t feel Half Lives was nearly as powerful or original as Dark Parties.
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