Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Paige Mahoney is a clairvoyant dream walker. Her government, Scion, does not approve of people like her so she is finds herself operating on the fringes of London's society, working for a crime boss called Jaxon Hall. One day, on her way home from work, she unintentionally kills two people. She manages to escape but is eventually captured at her home and taken to Sheol 1, a prison located in Oxford. There, she is turned into a "tenant" of one of the powerful overseers of the city, alternatively known as "The Warden". In order to survive, she is made to undergo various tests that will challenger her resolve and expose her to aspects of power that she could never have imagined in her previous life. It is rare that I don't finish a book, maybe once every few years, but this book falls into the could not finish pile. After about two hundred pages of exposition upon exposition, I had to give up. I wanted to like this book, I really did, after all this author was being hailed as the next J.K Rowling but after slogging through page after page of back story, random slangs and a story that kept getting bogged down by it's pacing, I had to give up. In reading this book, it reminds me of what the best authors are able to do well and seamlessly. While I think this author tried to communicate her vision, the way in which she did it came across as less than polished. I was never fully transported into this story, always aware that I was reading a story. In fact, sometimes when reading this, it felt almost like a text book where I was reading about all these technical terms without ever forming any emotional connection to the characters and their world. If the author had concentrated more on the characters, their individual stories as well as their interactions, rather than so much time being spent on throwing around slangs, made up terms and attempting a world building that was not altogether successful, then I could have engaged more with the story. There are things that were well done. The author is great at describing Paige's environs. From her work in London to when she ends up in Sheol 1, I could very clearly picture both worlds and it almost felt like I could smell the air and touch the clothes of the passersby. I also really liked the character of "The Warden" and I liked that he was layered, being much more than he at first appears. As a character, Paige starts off interesting but very quickly, I lost any emotional connection to her, making it harder to stay connected to the story. I didn't dislike her but I also did not find her memorable. Unfortunately, I could not get through the rest of the book as it seemed like there would be very little pay off and the story would only continue to crawl to a conclusion that I would care very little for.