London Eye (Toxic City, #1)

by Tim Lebbon

[Angie]

London Eye begins two years after London has been attacked by terrorist and quarantined from the rest of the world. There's no travel or communication into or out of the city in order to contain whatever has been released into the air. However, not everything the world knows about what happened in London is true. Now it's up to a group of teens to expose the lies, and find their families who were there during the attacks. I must say that the plot was a bit confusing in the beginning. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on until about half-way through. Luckily, there's a lot of other things that were able to hold my attention and keep me reading. By the end, I was completely invested and wanted to know how four teenagers could possibly stop what's happening in this dark, desolate city.

As far as YA Dystopians go, London Eye is not my favorite but I do think it was unique. I loved the idea of some kind of toxin being released and causing humans to evolve. All of the survivors of the attack are now known as Irregulars, and they're being hunted to be studied. Most of them have taken to living underground in small communities, or on their own but constantly on the move. They all have some kind of special power such as healing, tracking, or manipulation which help them continue to survive. However, there are some known as Superiors, whose talents far exceed the norm. I was a little confused on the specifics, but it seems like they're running things, and not in a way that's helpful to the others. There is one Superior in particular who we learn is at the top and needs to be stopped. I can't say more, because it's a pretty big spoiler.

One thing that I really did not like about London Eye was Lucy-Anne. She's our main hero, Jack's, girlfriend and she seriously got on my nerves. I did like how they were already in an established relationship, which was actually falling apart in the face of the apocalypse rather than starting. But we never really see them together much in order to witness how their relationship is changing. This is mostly do to the fact that Lucy-Anne takes off from the group rather earlier in a fit of rage and grief. She puts everyone at risk because she just won't listen. They're all in this together, they've all lost someone (except Jenna), but she's just selfish. From that point on we get small glimpses into what she's doing, which is mostly running. Eventually she meets a strange boy who controls birds, but their connection to the main plot isn't known until the very end. I really could have done without these parts, since I felt no connection to Lucy-Anne and was just annoyed by her.

In the end, I did like London Eye. There's a lot of great world building that made it easy to imagine this run down London. I also liked the inclusion of news broadcasts at the opening of each chapter. They got increasingly ominous as the story moved forward which really matched the changing tone of the book. I do wish that the plot had been made clear earlier, so I could have settled in and enjoyed it more. Things really start to come together at the end. There's not a cliffhanger, but the ending is quite open since this is obviously a series.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.