Review by shelby-reagan -- What are You Willing to Risk
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shelby-reagan
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- Latest Review: What are You Willing to Risk by P. L. Camery
Review by shelby-reagan -- What are You Willing to Risk
[Following is a volunteer review of "What are You Willing to Risk" by P. L. Camery.]
What Are You Willing to Risk by P.L. Camery is a young adult dystopian science fiction book focused on a group of four young students, Destiny, Lawrence, Caleb, and Mavis. All four are in a rebel group fighting against the Guardian, the leader of their dystopian world. This world is extremely strict and based in a caste system where the highest caste is expected to be the most intelligent and have the best jobs. The middle and low class can be punished and even killed for being more intelligent than someone in the highest caste. Destiny and Lawrence are siblings whose parents have been killed by the government during a rebel mission. Both are in the high class along with Caleb, Lawrence’s best friend. Mavis is in the middle caste and is Destiny’s best friend. Mavis is an incredibly intelligent girl who has been newly minted into the rebel cause. She often gets in trouble for being too smart by her University and has to work to get lower grades so as not to cause upheaval within the upper-class students. The four work on rebel missions together and separately before they discover information that changes everything.
This story contains a lot of elements of other popular dystopian novels including caste systems, restrictive technology use, controlling subjects with serums, and peacekeepers patrolling. Now, this doesn’t bother me necessarily as dystopian and science fiction books often have overlap. However, the backstory of the government could have used a little more development. I had some questions about the implementation of the government and why and how it had been started.
In general, the whole book was very good. Cal (Caleb) is a perfect witty sidekick, Mavis has incredible banter, and the romance within the book doesn’t feel forced or cringey. The sibling relationship between Lawrence and Destiny is definitely strained which is understandable considering their joint trauma however, there are times when they seem like they barely know each other. Maybe this is the point of their relationship but it feels a little jarring to me considering they’re not necessarily hostile but they aren’t close either. I liked each character a lot. They all seemed fairly developed though I would have liked to see more of Cal’s personality. He was so enjoyable when he was in the plot, that I wished he was more integral to the storyline.
Speaking in that same vein, I think a lot of the book could have benefited from more detail. It had a lot of amazing plot points with good twists and turns. But in most cases, I wanted to hear more. Things moved quickly but maybe a little too quickly. I didn’t feel the movement of the plot fluidly but in jagged quick cuts. This made the read slightly less enjoyable but not enough that I wouldn’t recommend it.
Overall, I would give the book a 3 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed the book a lot, the plot was interesting, and I think anyone would who likes dystopian reads would enjoy it. However, if overlap from other books bothers you, I would not necessarily recommend it. I am not giving it 4 stars simply because there were a few typos and grammar errors, there is a lot of overlap between other dystopian books, and the plot could have used a little more detail. My favorite part was the relationships between the characters, the banter and wit gave me a lot of joy and on page 5 I said “oh wow I love this” to myself. However, my least favorite part was the lack of detail in some of the plot points. The end reminded me both of Divergent and Hunger Games but I would still be very interested in reading a sequel to see the next move for the four friends.
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What are You Willing to Risk
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
What Are You Willing to Risk by P.L. Camery is a young adult dystopian science fiction book focused on a group of four young students, Destiny, Lawrence, Caleb, and Mavis. All four are in a rebel group fighting against the Guardian, the leader of their dystopian world. This world is extremely strict and based in a caste system where the highest caste is expected to be the most intelligent and have the best jobs. The middle and low class can be punished and even killed for being more intelligent than someone in the highest caste. Destiny and Lawrence are siblings whose parents have been killed by the government during a rebel mission. Both are in the high class along with Caleb, Lawrence’s best friend. Mavis is in the middle caste and is Destiny’s best friend. Mavis is an incredibly intelligent girl who has been newly minted into the rebel cause. She often gets in trouble for being too smart by her University and has to work to get lower grades so as not to cause upheaval within the upper-class students. The four work on rebel missions together and separately before they discover information that changes everything.
This story contains a lot of elements of other popular dystopian novels including caste systems, restrictive technology use, controlling subjects with serums, and peacekeepers patrolling. Now, this doesn’t bother me necessarily as dystopian and science fiction books often have overlap. However, the backstory of the government could have used a little more development. I had some questions about the implementation of the government and why and how it had been started.
In general, the whole book was very good. Cal (Caleb) is a perfect witty sidekick, Mavis has incredible banter, and the romance within the book doesn’t feel forced or cringey. The sibling relationship between Lawrence and Destiny is definitely strained which is understandable considering their joint trauma however, there are times when they seem like they barely know each other. Maybe this is the point of their relationship but it feels a little jarring to me considering they’re not necessarily hostile but they aren’t close either. I liked each character a lot. They all seemed fairly developed though I would have liked to see more of Cal’s personality. He was so enjoyable when he was in the plot, that I wished he was more integral to the storyline.
Speaking in that same vein, I think a lot of the book could have benefited from more detail. It had a lot of amazing plot points with good twists and turns. But in most cases, I wanted to hear more. Things moved quickly but maybe a little too quickly. I didn’t feel the movement of the plot fluidly but in jagged quick cuts. This made the read slightly less enjoyable but not enough that I wouldn’t recommend it.
Overall, I would give the book a 3 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed the book a lot, the plot was interesting, and I think anyone would who likes dystopian reads would enjoy it. However, if overlap from other books bothers you, I would not necessarily recommend it. I am not giving it 4 stars simply because there were a few typos and grammar errors, there is a lot of overlap between other dystopian books, and the plot could have used a little more detail. My favorite part was the relationships between the characters, the banter and wit gave me a lot of joy and on page 5 I said “oh wow I love this” to myself. However, my least favorite part was the lack of detail in some of the plot points. The end reminded me both of Divergent and Hunger Games but I would still be very interested in reading a sequel to see the next move for the four friends.
******
What are You Willing to Risk
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: What are You Willing to Risk by P. L. Camery
