Oh yay, my mind has the mixed feelings again! Let's get right to it with yet another list, hmm?
The Things I Liked:
- It's on another planet and that is always awesome. I mean, who doesn't want to go venture to literal worlds unknown!? And I love when a planet harbors secrets, and this one totally does. Especially in relation to the Faloii people, who are native to the planet.
- There is a lot of exploration, too. Basically that seems to be the main goal of the humans on this planet- to figure out the natural habitat and such. Of course, it is more complex than that, but there's the basics for you. The children are trained to literally spend their lives studying the world around them, and like I said before, there is much more than meets the eye. I enjoyed watching this unfold, and having our young characters figure this out.
- Amazing friendships and working together made me smile. While Octavia has a love interest, she is also in an amazing friendship. I like the balance, and I like how even though a lot of the students have seen themselves as competition in the past, they are awesome at working together to figure out some of the shady stuff that might be going on.
The Things I Didn't:
- The biggest issue I had was that it just seemed to drag at times. There was some action, especially toward the end, but for a long time things felt like they could have moved a bit quicker.
- I did have a bit of a feeling that I knew where certain plot points were headed. Again, that makes it harder for me to be as excited about reading as I would be if I wasn't sure of where things were headed.
Will I Read the Sequel: Possibly. I mean, it'll be on my TBR, at least.
Bottom Line: While I liked a great many things about this book, the predictability and pacing made it a bit hard for me to be fully invested.