Review: Archetype

Archetype by M.D. Waters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.]

There's nothing particularly special about this book that makes it terribly innovative. It has the typical dystopian women-as-property-because-they-overbred-boys idea, a controlling husband, a woman who wakes up on a table and doesn't know who she is or anything about her past... It's what she figures out as she tries to understand her history that sets this apart from other dystopian SF I've read lately.

Now, I'm not saying this was a particularly bad book, but it wasn't amazing, or mind-blowing, or recommendation-worthy. I enjoyed the read, and I plan to read the second book because I want to know what happens (especially with what happened in the last 50 pages or so, and also because I won the second book too).

What I liked (in list format because I feel like it):
* The reveal towards the end as to who Emma really is
* Declan's personality coming out in full, and the way he slowly showed it throughout
* The flashes of memory (this is also something I didn't like)

What I didn't like:
* The way Emma speaks. She does not use contractions, she speaks like a robot. And I guess this can be considered a clue (no, she's not a robot), but I would have thought as her memory came back she would start speaking like a normal human being again. She doesn't.
* The descriptions of lovemaking, and love, and all that junk. I'm cool with sex in books, that's not the problem. It's just that I've never *ever* had (or heard of anyone who has had) sex like the stuff in this book. And coupled with the flowery romantic language when Emma is thinking about Declan and this mystery person she sees in her memory flashes, it was too over-the-top for me to be even remotely realistic.

As long as you aren't expecting a mind-blowing thriller, or epic SF, you'll probably enjoy this book. It was interesting, and I read it in two days. So I'm judging it for what it is, and not for what it's not (although I do wish the writing hadn't been so flowery most of the time), and yeah, I liked it.

View all my reviews