Hey my lovelies, this weeks review is the one and only... The 100 by Pass Morgan, the books that the amazing CW series is based off. As the third series is soon to be released, I figured why not have a read of the book series that started it all off, as I did already own the books and it would knock a trilogy of my tbr, so why not? It couldn't do me any harm. Minor spoilers ahead, however nothing that would stop you from reading the novel.
Title: The 100
Author: Kass Morgan
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Pub. Date: September 3rd 2013
Date Read:Saturday 16th January 2016
Pages: 323
Rating:3.6/5 stars
Goodreads Summary: No one has set foot on Earth in centuries -- until now. Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission. CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth. Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.
The 100 is definitely what I call a strange book, firstly I enjoyed it and I did finish it fairly quickly, so far it sounds like pretty much an ideal book, right? However, my only problem was that nothing happened. Literally nothing, the characters were likable, the writing was good, but when the characters got to earth and nothing, absolutely nada, nothing happened. And this sort of a book, even with how short it is you expect to me thrown into some sort of action to keep the reader entertained, but no. Maybe my expectations were to high due to the show, but I don't know. And to me the book felt majorly like a prequel, or a short story just to give you an idea of the characters past. Which is another thing the book also had a lot of flashbacks, but not as in the good keep us waiting in order to build up the anticipation. Flashbacks, the kind that the reader asks a question here and instantly there is the corresponding answer in flashback form.
Now to get down to what the book is really about, The 100 is a multi-point-of-view book about a group of "criminal" teenagers who are sent back to earth, after a couple of centuries living in space due to a nuclear radiation disaster. These characters are the backbone of the story, they manage to be likable without doing much, instead we pretty much learn there back story and what they have done to get where they are (on earth).
There's Clarke, an ex-medical apprentice (which strangely enough comes in very handy, when you crash down to earth after being exiled) who literally fixes people up and argues with Wells. Clarke spends a lot of time conversing with patients and learning the difference between what is good and right and to be careful who you tell your secrets too, especially in a society where the rich and affluent only look after themselves. There are also large hints to a capital society in the novel, but I'll get to that later.
Next there is Wells, who is the chancellors son, who strangely enough isn't very popular on Earth considering his dad is the reason they've all been sent down to earth and has most likely killed or indirectly killed a member of their family. Wells came down to earth in order to seek forgiveness from Clarke, who doesn't really care, due to her problem with him outweighing his crush on her. That being said he spends majority of the time pining after Clarke and toeing the line between what is right and the rules that have been instilled into him since birth.
Then there is Clarke's other love interest Bellamy, who is slightly older than the 100 (the group of teenagers), due to him not originally supposed to being on the ship, as he snuck on to be with his younger sister Octavia, in order to do this he had to shoot the chancellor (yes, Wells dad) to create a big enough diversion to get him on the ship. One of the best things about this book was Bellamy because of how almost real he was, he cared about his little sister on a world that doesn't understand their relationship and is still less of a douche, than he is in the first season, instead he is cocky and goes after Clarke (team bellarke).
Our next is Octavia, who is not that big of a spitfire as she is on the TV show, she spent most of her life living in a closet (there are strict one child rules in space) with a mother who put herself over both her children, we learn quite a lot about her past although not from her, instead through Bellamy's flashbacks. Strangely enough, Octavia is probably my least favourite of the point of views, and yet she is my favourite on the show. Although I do have to say there doesn't seem to be that many kick ass characters as there is on the TV show yet, but hopefully in the next two books they will develop and get there.
Our final point of view is Glass, who is a completely new character to me due to her not featuring on the TV show, and is the only one of the 100, not to get sent down to earth, this is due to her escaping during Bellamy's diversion, essentially causing them to swap places. Glass is then our window to what is going on back on the ship, but a teenagers perception of it, as she was never really concerned about what was going on, or the reasoning behind anything. In fact she has now swapped places with Octavia, she is now my least favourite due to her selfishness, when some of her friends (including Clarke) got sent down, she never even considered what they must be going through or even if they survived. She just didn't care. Just her problems of how and why she became a criminal and what she did to get away with her crimes. All why trying to get back with her boyfriend, even though reading back on the paragraph I seem to of depicted her as a annoying and whiny character, she was not and the more you learn about glass through her flashbacks the more you understand her, although in real life you probably wouldn't have made quite a few of the same choices that she did.
There also seems to be a lot of hints to some sort of capitalist society in space, which I'm not exactly sure how that would work. As there can't be that much room to do that sort of stuff and the politics on a space ship can it?
Also at the end we had a little bit of drama where a few characters died, but as we has only met them a few times I personally, didn't care for them and wasn't bothered when they died, especially when only one? of the main characters actually spoke to them, the rest we either didn't know they existed or ignored them.
And after finishing it I feel no inclination to read the rest of the trilogy, it sort of feels like a dead end. However, I will be reading the rest of then trilogy, one reason is because I already own copies of them and its another three books knocked off my tbr pile but only a small one is to see whether the series gets better or not. I mean a books got to be good in order to get such a kick ass show based upon it.
Thank you for reading my lovelies, this is it for this week, if you would like to see more of what I am currently reading you can check me out on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter.
Previous Book Review: Anne & Henry by Dawn Ius
Next Book Review: Day 21 by Kass Morgan
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