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Monday, September 17, 2012

Review: The Forever Contract

Title The Forever Contract
By Avery Sawyer
Genre YA dystopian
Pages 46
Recommended by Jessica

First sentece All anyone ever talked about these days was going into the system.

Synopsis
Told from alternating POVs, comes a novella about a very scary future world. Water is rationed, and people spend all their time digging wells,  but there's a chance to get out. Enter the system a computer program that offers whatever you can imagine. The problem? There's no coming out again.


What it has going for it
I was ready to really enjoy this one. I really loved Avery Sawyer's Notes To Self. The idea was, no, not unique but scarily realistic. It dragged up some interesting questions about how far we take technology and I liked that. It made me think and kinda scared me. I liked James and the lengths he was willing to go to for Casey. And, uh that's about all I liked.

What's lacking
I really was expecting something better than this. Sorry, but I was. Notes to Self was amazing and didn't feel at all like a self published book. This one, however, felt much more messily written. Plus there's the whole "short story"  thing I struggle with. It just wasn't memorable, so much so, that I almost forgot to review it. Plus I think that the cover is so steamy but it did not fit the book AT ALL. I just don't get it.

Favorite moment
It's really hard to choose a moment when you didn't particularly like the book. Just sayin'.

Yea or Nay?
Meh, it's not long and won't take you much time to read. I'll leave the decision up to you.

28 comments:

  1. I probably wouldn't read this based on the cover alone, but the premise certainly does sound interesting.

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    1. The cover and synopsis just don't match at all.

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  2. Love the cover, but I does not think this the book for me. I not so fan of dystopian books.

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    1. You know, I'm not a huge fan of dystopian either, and yet, I keep reading it.

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  3. I was wondering about that cover too... I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it as much. I blame the short story aspect of it. I'm glad you liked some of it though! (Note to self: Don't suggest any more short stories to Jenny... ;) )

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    1. LOL! No, no, keep the recommendations coming.

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  4. Honestly, I don't do short stories. But even if I did...no, no I don't think I'd like this one. I need a lot more substance than that.

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    1. They really are hard to get into for some people, me included.

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  5. Hmm, I do like the occasional short story and this one does sound intruiging, but I'm not really reading much YA at the moment. Sorry to hear you didn't like this one so much.

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    1. I need to cut back on the YA...but I really don't think that's going to happen. They're just so much quicker to read.

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  6. Heh, I actually thought this was a teen romance book when I first saw the cover! I would not have guessed it for a dystopian if it hadn't been printed under the title. I love novellas, but this one doesn't sound like my sort of thing.

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    1. I know! That cover just doesn't say dystopian.

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  7. Dang that the book is a bummer because the cover is very swoony and doesn't look like it belongs on a YA book. Though after reading the synopsis the cover doesn't fit at all.
    Think I'll have to pass up on this book though. Novellas are always sort of iffy for me.

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    1. It looks like a very sexy romance and there was nothing more than a few kisses. I don't get it.

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  8. I'm not keen on the cover either but I can imagine it attracts a lot of readers. I love the idea of this one. There sounds like a lot of potential. I just wouldn't think based on the synopsis that it would be a short story. Sorry that you didn't enjoy it as much as you hoped. At least there was one character you liked. More than I can say for a lot of books I've been reading!

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  9. Yeah, with that synopsis there's so much more that could have been done with it. A short story just didn't quite work.

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  10. I'm not a novella person. I'm ok with short stories but I feel like novella's are a tease. They give you some to get you excited, but not nearly enough to leave you satisfied.

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  11. I love that cover! Too bad the story didn't match the steaminess of the picture! I would definitely have read that book for the cover alone (what can I say...I'm a book cover whore)

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    1. I know! It looks like a steamy romance. And yet, there was hardly any.

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  12. The book does sound like it could be good, but the cover totally gives the impression of a romance novel. I'd think contemp YA, but you don't describe it like that. It's dumb to put a misleading cover on a book to get more sales.

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    1. Yeah, I'm not sure why the cover was chosen but it just didn't match. Aw well.

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  13. It's so awful when you love one book by an author then are horribly disappointed by another. I think I've had my fill of dystopians for a while so I'll probably give this a miss.

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  14. I am not a fan of short stories or novellas. It's just so hard to have a good story line in such a short amount of time. I've only liked one that I can think of but since it was a novella between two books in a trilogy it made a lot more sense to me

    Sorry you didn't like this one more!

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    1. I can see a bridge novella between books in a series working well but a novella on it's own is hard for me to get in to.

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  15. This cover is so freaking hot. I'm sorry that the story was lacking. I have Notes to Self on my Kindle and I'm looking forward to reading it... eventually.

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    1. I hope you like Notes to Self. I enjoyed it.

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