Achilles

The year is 2221, and humans have colonized a planet called Thetis in the Silver Foot Galaxy. After a tragic accident kills dozens of teenage colonists, Thetis's leaders are desperate to repopulate. So Earth sends the Mayflower 2―a state-of-the-art spaceship―across the universe to bring 177 new homesteaders to the colony. For Jonah Lincoln, an orphaned teen who has bounced between foster homes and spent time on the streets of Cleveland, the move to Thetis is a chance to reinvent himself, to be strong and independent and brave, the way he could never be on Earth. But his dreams go up in smoke when their ship crash-lands, killing half the passengers and leaving the rest stranded―not on Thetis, but on its cruel and unpopulated moon, Achilles. Between its bloodthirsty alien life forms and its distance from their intended location, Achilles is a harrowing landing place. When all of the adult survivors suddenly disappear, leaving the teenage passengers to fend for themselves, Jonah doubts they'll survive at all, much less reach Thetis―especially when it appears Achilles isn't as uninhabited as they were led to believe.

The story revolves around young teenager named Jonah who we first meet aboard the Mayflower 2 journeying towards a new Earth like planet. The story quickly dissolves into chaos when the ship experiences some sort of failure and crashes on Achilles, a moon of Thetis. Half of those aboard the ship are killed on the initial crash and the survivors try to deal with the crippling loss. Very soon though it's revealed that the crash was not as accidental as it appears and the group begins to struggle with trust. When people start mysteriously turning up brutally murdered sides are chosen. As one group splits up and decides to journey across the moon, it becomes apparent that something is not quite right about the moon or the planet Thetis. As more and more starts to go wrong a plot unravels that pushes all the teenagers to the very brink of their humanity.

This book was basically The Maze Runner meets Lord of the Flies meets The 100. It's such a well written tale that really took me through some strong emotional turns. There were some people, sad to say that I'm glad didn't make it. There were others who I felt deserved to survive and grew quite attached too. The loose sense of law and order was my favorite part of the story because it didn't feel forced or out of place given the situation. The best part I would say is that Jonah was a very well rounded character who I feel had a part that everyone could connect to.

If you are a fan of dystopian novels or enjoy the idea of a bunch of kids lost together trying to just survive then pick this book up. I really struggled with putting this book down once I started it. I feel like many would have the same issue.

This book can be picked up from the Amazon link above. There is a link to the author's bio at the top of the page. I humbly thank NetGalley and the publisherDiversion Publishing for this ARC copy of the book to review prior to release. I wish the author the best of luck with his future writing endeavors.

I rated this book a 4/5. I'm eagerly waiting for the next book to be released whenever that happens. I'm sure we ca expect great things from this author.