This was such a fun read. It's style at times reminded me of The Things We Carried, which is so unique and only added to the war-like flavor of the book. It's heavy on American Patriotism, which was a plus for me. It's not something you see much of anymore. The characters reference the founding fathers and have their art on the wall, which reminded me so much of my experience growing up in a military household. My parents have Washington praying (The Prayer at Valley Forge) above their bed and my dad has always loved quizzing us on who said what with quotes from presidents. It made all those touches in this book so relatable and I really just loved it.
Ellie is also a fun character. She's spunky, strong, and somewhat naive (as all teenagers are). There were definitely times when she made decisions that had me wanting to reach through the book and grab her by the shoulders and yell 'you're too smart for this!' but really it all added to her growth so well. Character growth is a big deal for me, and even the best plot in the world falls flat to me if the characters are stagnant. Ellie did not let me down.
It was a quick read for me (honestly I couldn't put it down for the last hundred pages), but I liked that about it too. The material could have come across as too dense with the dystopian war aspects so I like that it stayed lighter. Additionally, I've never read a dystopian with people trying to put America back together. I loved that they hadn't given up on their country. I loved that they believed there was still good worth fighting for.
I give it 5/5 and a rating of PG-13 (or even PG-11, the violence is handled really well).
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