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The Woodlands (2013)

by Lauren Nicolle Taylor(Favorite Author)

3.86 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Clean Teen Publishing

series

The Woodlands

review 1: I love the dystopian genre. I think there is something about tarring down the system and making the world a better place that resonates with our current society. Just look at the protest in Hong Kong. We are living in a world that needs to be fixed. I think that is why dystopian literature is so popular at the moment, and why it is mostly geared towards young adults. I had no idea what to expect when I first picked up The Woodlands. It was free and looked interesting. I had no idea that it was going to be such an amazing series, well book since I have not finished the series. The writing is good, allowing you to forget the words and get lost in the characters. The characters have their flaws, but that is what helps make them real. I found them to be realistic and agreeable... more given the society. The plot is interesting. It is not majorly unique in dystopian literature. However it is not boring and overdone as well. I cannot wait until I get book two and continue on in the series.
review 2: This was an unfortunate book read. Not because the idea was bad...it was pretty good actually, but because nothing was fleshed out like it should be. There were a lot of fragmented thoughts and scenarios that left the reader floundering trying understand what the characters (often Rosa) were feeling or experiencing. Key plot twists were revealed almost like an afterthought, the reveals fragmented and unclear. Big moments for the author and readers were basically thrown away. The world's descriptions were confusing and the character motivations were unclear and disjointed which caused even more confusion.The end effect made Rosa (the main pov) sound very petty, childish and oppositional...not to mention a walking contradiction. Her moods went from 0 to 1000 in a split second....constantly. She held others to a moral standard she herself was the first to abandon. Her anger and rage at EVERYTHING was not only annoying, but redundant and unnecessary, especially since she wasn't allowed to express her feelings and reasons why she was so angry. Maybe if she had the reader could understand her a bit more?? Feel something more for her. They way she read it was as if the world owed her something. She was the end all, be all and everyone else just...well for lack of a more fitting word, sucked! She was mean and nasty just for the sake of it. She was cold and unforgiving...and when she did start to soften or forgive someone their transgressions, it was like she was bestowing an undeserved favor to them. Her natural suspicion of all others made sense given her predicaments and life experiences, but she never evolved from that. She never seemed to grow as a character or a person. Finally her love for Clara (which the intensity of was not believable at all) came out of nowhere. Not once when they were underground together did Rosa sound or display ANY warmth towards Clara nor any concern unless there was information/something in it for her. She was self-serving and condescending. Period. Suddenly they are free and walking a train track and they are sisters???? Nope, not buying that one bit. Her love for Hessa, while a step in the right direction made her rejection if her own baby all the more unpalatable. What do you mean, "I don't know how I can do it" about being a mother? That ship sailed when you became a surrogate mother to Hessa. Regressing once your own kid is born and rejecting him while still doting on Hessa just makes Rosa all the more unlikeable and self centered. And how about all of Rosa's melodramatic, lost into herself, zombie moments where she just can't climb out of her inner trauma and turmoil? Spare me. Please...once was enough....but three times in the same book? Rosa went catatonic like most people sneeze. Just a daily thing for her! I could go on about this character....but it all follows the same path...she was written as a defiant, immature, weak "heroine(????)" who wants that? Can't root for that!!!The other characters had similar frustrations.Joseph the beautiful, strong brilliant love interest....for Rosa??? Yeah okClara the "sister" that really bad zero purposeHessa the baby that was wanted...but why????Deshi the token gay guy....unnecessary except for maybe his Classes specialtyAlexei same as Deshi but not gayApella was the only interesting character and she was marginalized most of the time. Any why is she pregnant too???Careen...psycho much??? But she was supposed to be a guardian...not to subtle drop so maybe she's a crazy super spy and we will find out later??Lastly...a simple fix to a lot of these problems would have been to aloe the reader to come to conclusions on their own instead of having Rosa bear the burden if constantly "thinking things" to tell the reader. For example, instead of Rosa informing us that Careen was finished with her 1st year of classes and was to be a guardian, maybe we could have read a scene where Careen is telling the group her story and we learn it from her. You dint have to change POVs to do that. less

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