Review Detail

THE RUN-DOWN
After World War 3, a few survivors were able to escape to Alaska and form their own clan. Juneau, having grown up within the clan, is used to this life. A life of protecting her clan from war survivors, hunting, using the Yara, and being with her clan. But when her clan disappears, she finds out that World War 3 never happened. But when she's trying to find her clan, others are trying to find her for more sinister reasons.

MY THOUGHTS
I'm not quite sure what I was expecting.
I knew that this book was about a girl who believed her entire life that the world practically ended, only to realize that the world is still turning, but what next? I had no idea what to expect after that. I knew there had to be more, that it wasn't going to be Juneau getting used to the modern day world, the book just didn't put off that kind of vibe. But, too be honest, I was taken by surprise at the direction this book turned.

Sure, I was not expecting that a drug company, and others, would be hunting her down, I sure wasn't expecting that, but what I really wasn't expecting was the strange magical element that was within this book. Apparently, Juneau and her clan can connect with the Yara, which is, basically, using nature to get superpowers (i.e. see the future, see great distance, control animals, etc.). I'm sorry, but this made the book very strange. I also had a hard time understanding how this Yara thing worked and a hard time believing that this could actually be possible.

Now, the characters were kind of hard for me to relate to or understand (I have never been part of a clan that uses nature to get superpowers) but I do believe that the characterization is spot on.
This book is, actually, dual point-of-view (something else I was not expecting). One view being, of course, Juneau. The other view is a teenage boy named Miles who's father is in search of a girl who knows something about the drug (I bet you know who this girl is). At first, this dual point-of-view is really strange. We get a bunch of pages of Juneau, then about a page of Miles that tell us absolutely nothing. Miles eventually gets longer chapters and actually contributes to the story, but it does seem weird at first.
The reason as to why the characterization was so great though was because from Juneau we have a girl who grew up believing that the world ended and grew up within a clan that was basically one with nature. She is confused about the modern world and is more comfortable in the wilderness. Now Miles is just an average teenage guy who has to take Juneau on a road trip and to him, she's a crazy chick. Why do I like these characterizations? THEY MAKE SENSE!!!! Someone who grew up outside the modern world would definetly not understand it and if that person started talking to you about see the future with the Yara you bet you're going to call them crazy.

One thing I did not like was the romance. Yeah, it's a YA book, there's bound to be romance, but this book felt like one of those forced romances."Like, hey, we have a guy character and a girl character. Let's make them have strange irresistible feelings for eachother that make no sense. Also, let's have an awkward kiss" This was basically the romance.

I also want to touch up on the ending. I knew before hand that this book was going to end in a cliffhanger which worried me. THE CLIFFHANGER IS NOT THAT BAD. Sure, I might be saying that since this book didn't wow me, but the book ended in a way that you knew what was going to happen. The book just ended before that could happen.

IN CONCLUSION
Well, this is probably my longest review and I apologize for that.
This book took me by surprise, and, sadly, I did not enjoy the surprise. I found the magical elements just plain weird and the romance pointless. I did kind of like the characters in a way and I liked the original premise of the story, just not the direction it went.
I will be reading the sequel, since I did actually like this book.