Landry Park

by Bethany Hagen

In a futuristic, fractured United States where the oppressed Rootless handle the raw nuclear material that powers the Gentry's lavish lifestyle, seventeen-year-old Madeline Landry must choose between taking over her father's vast estate or rebelling against everything she has ever known, in the name of justice.

• ISBN10: 0142425486
• ISBN13: 9780142425480
• Publish Date: 22 January 2015 (first published 4 February 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Speak
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[tweetybugshouse]

Debut author Hagen’s Landry Park is nerve-rattling blend of southern charm and ya dystopian. We have two classes in this novel the Gentry which our main character Madeline Landry is the heiress of all of Landry Park. The other is the Rootless who ancestors fought against the class system in a centuries-old war, and are now made to handle the dangerous radioactive waste that powers that homes of the Gentry.

This story unfolds to where Madeline who set to inherit everything wants to go off to University and not marry at least not yet. Her farther is determine to chain her to the estate and makes various deals with her to prevent her from dreaming of a life beyond Landry Park. Madeline undercover dark secrets about her ancestors who started it all and a civil war basically breaks out between the Gentry and the Rootless.

Madeline is torn between the life she always known and what she knows in her heart to be right. The book i read most recently that reminds me of this is Metaltown. I love books like this cause their conflict, sometimes romance, and the lesson that all is not what it seems. Their is a book two for this series so i am intrigued to see what happen now that all has been reveled about the Gentry and the uprisen.

[shannonmiz]

I feel a bit on the fence about this book. On one hand, it did entertain me, and that certainly counts for something. On the other, it felt very... done before. Not that the story wasn't unique in its own right, but I guess it just didn't stick out for me in a sea of similar books. Let's break it down, shall we?

• The Characters: Madeline was a good protagonist, most of the time. I liked her, and I usually felt pretty connected to her, so that was good. She wanted to be well rounded, she wanted a chance to study before settling down to have a family, she was quite strong in her convictions. There was one inconsistency that irked me about her though. While she was sympathetic to the Rootless, she was ridiculously worried about some cosmetic house damage, which didn't seem to fit with someone who was otherwise not that concerned with gentry things.  I understood even her wavering when it came to rebelling against her father, that made sense. But the drama over the house stuff confused me.
  I was also very intrigued by what Cara's situation was, and certainly felt sympathetic for the Rootless. And I had lots of wavering feelings about David, but I more liked him than I didn't. And Jude didn't seem necessary, and I feel like maybe he isn't what he seems. Or I hope, because he needs a point. Otherwise, dude needs to go home.  So the characters overall were a positive.


• Parent-in-YA Syndrome: Ugh, your typical horrible excuse for a father, who only cares about his precious legacy. And a mother who is pretty useless overall. I do like the interaction with David's mother and Madeline's father, that was kind of fun and different. Otherwise, they were just... there.


• The Romance: This was not a love triangle. It was a love... pentagon? But it wasn't. It is so hard to explain without spoilers, but it is not any kind of typical love triangle, so that was good. There was some insta-attraction, but not love, so that was fine. I enjoyed the romance part of the book.


• The writing: It was good, though a little slower than I would have liked at times, but overall, I can't complain.


• The Plot: It was entertaining, but just a bit overdone. I think this may be in part because I oversaturated myself with dystopian books in general, but there isn't anything that really stuck out as completely fresh to me. It's Girl Meets Oppressive Society, mixed with Girl Meets Rebellion. The nuclear stuff gave it some freshness, but I felt like it could have been replaced with anything else (insert plague, war, or villain here) and it would have been pretty much the same. Perhaps it will stand out more in Jubilee Manor.

Bottom Line: It wasn't a bad book by any means, it just didn't wow me. I am probably curious enough to read the next book, and I did enjoy the author's writing, so it definitely was worth reading, but not one I would rush to read.
This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight