3 out of 4 stars
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I give this book three out of four stars!!!
I was SO close to rating this book four stars. I think what stopped me was that there were a few parts in the book (very few) that didn't seem quite as developed as they could have been. I did a bit of research on Outcast while I was reading it, and I was interested to learn that it is actually a novelization of a sic-fi movie called Purge. Most books I've read that were based off of movies, games, or tv shows were fairly easy to spot. They read more like fan fiction and sometimes don't always have the best diction because the writer is trying to follow the movie as closely as possible. This was not one of those books. I couldn't even tell that it was meant to follow an already existing film. But if I'd focused too much on the aforementioned underdeveloped scenes, I possibly could have figured it out. Don't let that hold you back from reading this book. Worrying about a thing like that will keep you from reading almost everything. You definitely have to keep an open-mind.
I'm going to say this in my review because it's something I feel is very important that isn't included in most reviews. THIS. BOOK. HAS. TRIGGERS. Most of you who use the internet often should know what triggers are, but for those of you out of the loop, a trigger is something in media that can trigger some sort of panic attack or bad memory. That's the best way I can explain it. If you have strong triggers in what I'm about to list, then this book definitely won't be for you. This book has allot of drugs and sex in it. Some of the sex could probably even be considered rape. The sex scenes written into this book are extremely graphic. If that's something that could caused a trigger for you or something that you're uncomfortable with reading, then you shouldn't read this book.
Outcast is about a girl named Layla who lives in a society where everyone is created through genetic engineering and is programmed to perform a specific role. For any society member to think outside of what their programming allows or to feel love is to become a Stray, a fate worse than death. Layla was meant to work in her sister's BDSM salon, but on the day she was supposed to start she became violently ill. She soon discovered that she was given aversion therapy to make her incapable of fulfilling her programming and an addiction to Klava, a deadly drug, so that she could be controlled by the rebel Strays and their leader, Peta, the hermaphrodite that caused all of her problems. She was denied treatment for her addiction, thrown out of society, and labeled as a Stray. Readers follow Layla on her journey of trying to rejoin society and resisting Peta's plots to make her join his rebellion. But can she trust him?
I really enjoyed reading Outcast. I'm not usually okay with reading many graphic sex scenes. I must say that when I accepted the offer, I didn't think much of the fact that it involved BDSM and didn't expect to actually read it like I should have. It was hard to get past my initial shock at the first few graphic scenes and I was almost tempted to put it down, but once I opened up my mind and accepted it, it actually contributed to the plot line. This is a book of self discovery and breaking free of the binds set on you by the government; almost like Divergent and The Hunger Games, but not as kid friendly. I was starting to expect it to follow the same route, too. I was expecting for Layla to win in the end and for the government to be overthrown, but there was an interesting twist that changed that. I quite enjoyed that it decided not to follow the same cliched path that was starting to become a pattern in the current popular books.
Marc Saville is an EXCELLENT writer. He succeeds in making the reader sit at the edge of his or her seat and keep turning the pages to see what happens next. I recommend this book to all sci-fi lovers and to anyone open to try something new. This book was great read and I think many would enjoy it.
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Outcast
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