"Blood was thicker than water, right? But was blood thicker than love? Than choice? Than freedom?"
If someone was to ask me what Possession is really about, I wouldn't be able to answer.
On the surface, it seems like a typical YA dystopia. The main character lives in a society that is being controlled by the 'big bads'. When they find out about all the brainwashing, they either run away or get mixed up in a rebellion, leave their love interest or 'match' behind and end up pining for the rebellious one who introduced them to the resistance. Possession is a little different. The heroine, Violet, already knows that her society is being controlled and because she doesn't follow the rules, she is sent to prison.
After that... I become a ball of confusion, which could be due to two factors: the worldbuilding and the characters.
The worldbuilding is confusing, inconsistent and hazy. The world is technologically advanced and people have special abilities, but the tech isn't explained, the abilities don't make sense and a bunch of terms get thrown around.
There's also different areas, one of them being the Badlands, which causes more confusion because:
1) The Badlands is not as controlled and has a lot more freedom, but the same people who run Violet's city also control the Badlands. Why don't they brainwash people there too?
2) People get banished to the Badlands, but why? More freedom isn't a punishment.
The characters are also inconsistent and I didn't care about them. Their motives are unclear. Why do they want to run away? What do they want to achieve? Instead of the characters' personality and actions and moving the plot along, their actions are forced to fit in with what the confusing plot dictates.
The instalove and love triangle is poorly executed. Zenn, Violet's 'match', is forgotten about for most of the book and Jag is the attractive guy whom Violet meets in prison and finds utterly irresistible. I didn't care about the romance aspects and couldn't take the romantic relationships seriously.
With all that said, Possession has some positives that kept me reading, such as interesting concepts and technology and exciting plot points that are introduced in the last quarter.
I'm hoping that Surrender has better worldbuilding because the world and its concepts seem interesting. I just couldn't understand much of it.