Review: Arclight by Josin L. Mcquein

Goodreads Summary: No one crosses the wall of light . . . except for one girl who doesn’t remember who she is, where she came from, or how she survived. A harrowing, powerful debut thriller about finding yourself and protecting your future—no matter how short and uncertain it may be.

The Arclight is the last defense. The Fade can’t get in. Outside the Arclight’s border of high-powered beams is the Dark. And between the Light and the Dark is the Grey, a narrow, barren no-man’s-land. That’s where the rescue team finds Marina, a lone teenage girl with no memory of the horrors she faced or the family she lost. Marina is the only person who has ever survived an encounter with the Fade. She’s the first hope humanity has had in generations, but she could also be the catalyst for their final destruction. Because the Fade will stop at nothing to get her back. Marina knows it. Tobin, who’s determined to take his revenge on the Fade, knows it. Anne-Marie, who just wishes it were all over, knows it.

When one of the Fade infiltrates the Arclight and Marina recognizes it, she will begin to unlock secrets she didn’t even know she had. Who will Marina become? Who can she never be again?

 Goodreads / The Book Depository

Genre: Young adult, dystopian, science fiction
Pages: 400
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

First Line: "Someone's attention shouldn't have physical weight, but it does."

Favorite Quote:
"You could have asked politely."
"Mouth closed. Politely."

Review:

When I first heard about this book, I wasn't all that interested. I'd been reading a lot of dystopian books in a row, though, so I waited for a library copy rather than buying it myself. After reading the summary a little more closely than before and examining the very shiny cover, I found that I was a lot more excited to read it. Especially after seeing quite a few positive reviews floating around the book community about it. However, Arclight sadly ended up being a pretty major all-around disappointment for me. This review will probably be mostly negative, as I can't think of too many positive things to say about it.

The first couple chapter of Arclight are really interesting. I was pretty curious from the get-go about what was going on, so I guess that's a good thing. But as time went on, I wanted to pick it up less and less, until it got to the point where I was seriously considering not finishing. But I just recently quit another book, and I didn't want to do a repeat. Plus was I already halfway through this novel, so I just ended up powering through it, which is not something I normally do.

The main thing I disliked were the characters. I didn't hate Marina throughout the story, and I still don't, but I never felt anything more than apathy towards her. Her narration was extremely dull, and I still don't feel like I have a decent idea of who she is as a person. I know she needed an inhaler and had a bag leg. I know where she lives and who she knows. I know cold, hard facts and nothing more. The actual writing of the book isn't bad, it's just not particularily engaging nor very memorable. Most of the side characters are not very well-fleshed out and I can see myself forgetting them easily within the next day or so.

The romance was boring. And what was frustrating was that it didn't seem like it should be. Normally, I would like Marina and Tobin's kind of relationship; there was no insta-love, and the two of them started spending time together and gradually developing feelings; although, most of everything they discussed was very serious. They know the big things about each other, but what about small things? What is Tobin's favorite color? What kinds of foods does Marina like? There were really no small moments between the two of them sweet enough to make me care if they were together or not. This is perhaps worse than insta-love, because the two people have No. Chemistry. At. All. Part of the reason I even read is for the romances, so when one falls flat like this, it's really disappointing.

The world-building is okay. It's probably an interesting idea. But the problem is that I feel like I never had a good, solid idea of what the Fade looked like. And because of this, they never creeped me out and made the moments in the novel that were supposed to be scary and suspenseful just not. In fact, I feel like I could have spent a lot of Arclight with a question mark above my head, because I feel like the plot was all over the place a lot of the time. The pacing was just off, and sometimes the things the characters did made no sense. An example is in the spoiler tag below; it links to my goodreads review where you can open it.

View Spoiler

By the time of the big reveal at the end, I just didn't care. I don't always make the best predictions about books, but I guessed what was going to happen about six pages into this story. Once in a while, when this occurs, I don't mind if I'm absorbed in everything else. Since I hated the characters and was confused about quite a few things, it felt very anti-climatic and I was left with that awful "that's it?" feeling. Overall, I definitely think some people will enjoy Arclight, but it just wasn't for me.

Books in this series:

1. Arclight
2. Meridian 

Other opinions: 

A Backwards Story
My Friends are Fiction 
Icey Books