Immortal Longings

This book is basically The Hunger Games, but stupid.

We have a post-apocalyptic adjacent world, comprised of 2 cities, some countryside and maybe another state.

We follow a handful of placeholder characters, who are somehow badass before we meet them and go through no evolution through this whole story.

Both world and character “development” are done exclusively through exposition and boy, oh boy, was it boring to read!

The plot is so shallow and half-done, that it falls apart under the slightest scrutiny. So, if you've come for the thrill of action and discovery - don't bother.

And if you've come for the romance - still don't bother. Our characters “fall” for each other over nothing more than physical attraction and in no time at all, despite having nothing remotely gentle between each other. I couldn't see chemistry, nor proper reciprocation between the two of them. All I saw was dysfunction and that ain't cute.

But I think the worst thing about this book was its female “protagonist”, who has nothing to offer but rudeness, stupidity, selfishness and cigarette smoke. I will never understand why so many contemporary authors, who want to write strong female characters, can only imagine them as having nothing feminine about them. A woman doesn't have to be masculine to be worthy of respect. A woman doesn't have to be nasty to be worthy of fear. A woman doesn't have to be sarcastic to imply depth. Have we lost all sense of subtlety?

The sad part is that there could've been a great story here and there were a couple of nice twists. But it was like finding a couple of nice bits in a bucket of slop.

I will not be continuing with the series.