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Arena One (2012)

by Morgan Rice(Favorite Author)

3.3 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0984975314 (ISBN13: 9780984975310)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Morgan Rice

series

The Survival Trilogy

review 1: In a post-apocalyptic America a girl who has managed to survive and keep part of her family alive, using only the survival techniques taught by her father, makes a personal sacrifice to save her younger sister by walking into a fight to the death arena. There is also a boy who saved her early in life by giving her some food, so she feels guilty and wants to also help him survive. She finds herself drawn to this boy, but there is another boy who is larger and stronger, and better at survival skills which makes a love triangle. While in the death match place, she gets a weapon that she uses against the people who made the arena and kills the insane leader in an act of defiance, thus making her and the boy the only two people to ever survive the death arena together. She then... more goes to a bombed out unknown area finds allies, and gets the supplies she needs to finish off her personal quest, while lots of people around her are dying. The author uses first person present tense to increase the suspense and intensity... sound familiar?Despite copying a great book, this book seemed to me like the last scene from Mission Impossible 2. The main character survives such impossible situations it becomes comical.The book takes place in a world where a group of armed, well equipped slave runners travel around and search for survivors so they can use them in their arena. Then for some unknown reason, when they find an occupied house, the slave runners leave weapons and equipment for the main character and run away... It's their job to hunt down survivors, especially ones who have some fight in them. Why did the car chase sequence happen? If they did their job, they would have just grabbed both girls in the first place. That entire part of the book was completely pointless, and unfortunately that is about 50% of the book.Also there is a boy, Peeta... no that's not right, what's his name again? I don't remember. Anyway, he lives around the same area as the Arena's 'Katniss' and he brings her some food, but never once thinks, 'hey, she has a house and we could maybe do better if we worked together.' If the survivors would get together in small secret groups, maybe the slave runners wouldn't be so much of a threat...The last 50% of the book is her in this death arena where she... spoiler alert... wins all the time because the gamemaker keeps sending her weapons for some reason. Then the book turns into 'Taken' where she chases her sister and saves her from a sex ring. It's really rushed and forced.I started out thinking this book would be pretty decent, but definitely an easy one star rating. Not worth reading.
review 2: I wanted to like this book. The overall plot is an interesting concept--a second civil war due to our country's differing political views with a young female protagonist. Unfortunately, I found the writing underwhelming and repetitive, the dialogue unbelievable, and there were WAY too many coincidental things the lead character, Brooke, knew how to do. To name a few, her father taught her how to drive a motorcycle, a car, and a boat; he taught her how to throw a knife with perfect accuracy (every. single. time.); and he made her learn karate. All sort of believable, unless the person is 17. I could maybe even stretch it for a 17 year-old, but this 17 year-old hasn't seen her dad in years, they've been in the war for three...that means she learned all this and more before the age of 14 and somehow, despite not having to use it in the last few years, remembers it all perfectly. There were too many easy-outs for Brooke to make it real life (like the boat they find stocked with delicious candy and food and champagne. After three years of war, that stuff is gone, sorry).What irked me the most was the romance in the book. The whole story takes place over three days. Three days in which all the characters are starving and freezing cold in winter, Brooke's sister is taken and put into a sex slavery ring, Brooke has to fight for her life and kills countless people (thanks to all the skills her dad taught her) and yet she still has time to analyze and dissect the two boys she finds cute and alluring. I don't think so. I don't care how much of a teenage girl you are, in that situation you are in survival mode and the cute boy sitting next to you and his eyes are nowhere on your register.There are some things that were left hanging in the end that pique my interest a little, but not enough to continue the series. less

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Reviews (see all)

maricarmen

This book started great and it finished a little shaky, because to me... it seems like an amalgamation of about 3 different stories. First of all the movies Taken. Remember his daughter gets taken (a younger girl like her sister in the story) and then she goes and they're on the boat at the end and she saves her sister from being raped by the weird guy just like Liam Neeson? You might not understand but watch the movie and then you'll see how close they are.I feel like it could be a really great book! It just sort of feels like she sort of got tired at the end of the book and just found the quickest solution and ta-da happy ending!

ginarose_kitteh

This book is about the future and a terrible war happens between the two political parts.The war destroyed everything in it path leaving nothing and now people have to survive off of the land and hope they do not get caught by slaverunners. This book is about some of the survivors living in the mountains and then one day everything changes. This book is like the Hunger Games except it has more violence and it is a futuristic book that happens in America.

Ira

loved this book looking forward to more

jaskebab

It is so amateurish, and teenaged.

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