Book Review: Adaptation

Adaptation by Malinda Lo, to be published April 2014 by Hachette Children’s Books.

Read: March 2014
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Source: Publisher – this does not affect my opinion of the book.
#Pages: 416

I don’t like spoilers, so I’m going to try to give a review of this book that will adequately describe and explain how much I liked it, and why, without giving anything away!

Goodreads Synopsis: Flocks of birds are hurling themselves at aeroplanes across America. Thousands of people die. Millions are stranded. Everyone knows the world will never be the same…Reese can’t remember anything from between her accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: she’s different now; the real question is: who can she trust?

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The Review

OK, so I’ve quite recently discovered how much I love dystopian/sci-fi novels and when I read the synopsis for this book I was pretty excited about it. Adaptation was a bit of a slow burner for me initially, but once I got into the story and the character relationships started to develop I couldn’t stop reading. All the things I loved about Adaptation:

• Malinda Lo’s writing style – this girl knows how to write a story that sucks you in, grabs you up in a big bear hug and happily keeps you there for days. I wouldn’t say the writing is overly complex, but the descriptions are pretty intricate (which leads on to the next point) and I really enjoyed the dialogue.
• There is a cinematic feel to the novel, I could definitely “see the movie in my head” while I was reading, and I LOVE when that happens. I imagine it is way too soon to tell if there is a screen-play in the works, but this definitely has potential.
• The character diversity – this may not happen for all readers, but I have noticed lately that a lot of my reading is centred on pretty stereotypical characters, and Adaptation was a bit of an eye-opener for me in terms of what I could be reading, and what I’d like to read more of…
• OK, so there is a love triangle (boo, hisss – I’m not the only one who’s bored of those, right?) but this is a love-triangle with one, if not two, significant differences, and it was a pretty fresh take on the whole “I love two people and don’t know who to choose” scenario. Well played, Miss Lo.

Quotables

“…every times I’m with you, the camera zooms in for a close-up and we’re the only two people in the frame. Do you know what I mean? You’re my close-up.”

The Rating

4/5

I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to others who like dystopian and sci-fi novels. I think at times some of the descriptions were difficult to imagine (Reese’s ability springs to mind) but not enough to spoil any aspect of the book. I have seen that there is a second book in this series and I’m going to have to get my hands on it to see what happens next!