Review: Strangelets

Strangelets by Michelle Gagnon

Publisher: Soho Teen
Publication Date: April 9th 2013
Pages: 288
Source: Ebook for Review from Publisher
Genre: Si-fi
Goodreads

17-year-old Sophie lies on her deathbed in California, awaiting the inevitable loss of her battle with cancer…
17-year-old Declan stares down two armed thugs in a back alley in Galway, Ireland…
17-year-old Anat attempts to traverse a booby-trapped tunnel between Israel and Egypt…

All three strangers should have died at the exact same moment, thousands of miles apart. Instead, they awaken together in an abandoned hospital—only to discover that they’re not alone. Three other teens from different places on the globe are trapped with them. Somebody or something seems to be pulling the strings. With their individual clocks ticking, they must band together if they’re to have any hope of surviving. 

Soon they discover that they've been trapped in a future that isn't of their making: a deadly, desolate world at once entirely familiar and utterly strange. Each teen harbors a secret, but only one holds the key that could get them home. As the truth comes to light through the eyes of Sophie, Declan, and Anat, the reader is taken on a dark and unforgettable journey into the hearts of teens who must decide what to do with a second chance at life.

You might be able to catch this off of the title, but this book is STRANGE. I didn't really know what to think when I started it, and I just jumped in. I really can't imagine where the idea for the book came from it is so twisted and, like I said before STRANGE.

The first thing that I really liked about this book was the mix of various cultures. This story follows six different characters, being told in the alternating perspective of three of those characters. Each character is from a different place, and each character has a very interesting personality based off of their background. The story is told in the perspectives of an American named Sophie, an Irish boy named Declan, and an Israeli named Anat. Obviously, I'm American (If you hadn't already caught on based on my vocabulary and spelling) so I don't really know how accurately some of the characters were portrayed, but I thought it was very interesting.

The only thing I really didn't like about the mix of culture is that each character conveniently spoke English. The whole idea of the book is that 6 random teens were pulled to this location. Only 9% of people in the world speak English (source), so every single one of the those teens being able to speak English is fairly unlikely.

The plot. I am not going to try to explain it for two reasons. One- It's so complicated I won't make sense. Two- Any attempt to will spoil pretty much the entire book. I am just going to comment on it. It was not expecting the plot to go the way it did. I thought it would be more of a psychological/paranormal sort of thing, but it ended up being more dystopian/si-fi. There was nothing wrong with that, but it felt very fast and made little sense. The plot felt like it changing direction every few chapters. There was never a break and everything became extremely hard to comprehend. 

The end was quite convenient. It was very convenient that most of the characters survived. It was convenient that two of the characters got together. It was convenient that despite everything they went through they just happened to have a ways to get things back to normal. I didn't like it.

Overall, this book really wasn't for me. I liked some of the ideas but the story was just all over the place. It was very hard for me to get into this book and I had a hard time picking it up.