I have seriously been waiting for this to come out ever since Shannon Hale first mentioned it's existence. She's one of my absolute favorite authors, mostly known for her exquisite fairy-tale-like stories and more recently, due to it's movie adaptation, Austenland. So, naturally, when she mentioned a possible Sci-Fi novel...I fangirled loudly.
As soon as a release date was set, I frantically requested it from my library so I'd be the first to have it in my selfish clutches. Needless to say, it was devoured in a day.
(From Goodreads) Maisie Danger Brown just wanted to get away from home for a bit, see something new. She never intended to fall in love. And she never imagined stumbling into a frightening plot that kills her friends and just might kill her, too. A plot that is already changing life on Earth as we know it. There's no going back. She is the only thing standing between danger and annihilation.
Spoiler Free Review:
Maisie was such a fresh character. For one thing, she was Hispanic. I don't remember when I last read a book where the main character wasn't your average white person. Also, she has quite a special and unique physical trait. Secondly, she has a strong relationship with her parents (and they are self-dependent and actually fill their roles as parents, unlike many YA parents these days). I'm sure someone will be able to point out their flaws and say they were horrible parents, but come on, parents can make mistakes too. And as far as YA parents go, they were some of the greats.
The plot was thought out and detailed enough to where I didn't need to know what the cellular-monodegeneratexoid-thingy was, but I still understood what it did. That's one of the beauties of Science Fiction, don't you think so? We don't all have to be nuclear scientists to truly understand the complexity of science. Just reading it you know "Wow, these people are intelligent and...what-in-the-world-is-that-supposed-to-mean? Oh, she explained it. Cool. Wait, what?- Ahhh, I get it!"
Okay, that may or may not have been a completely honest representation of my thoughts.
On to the love interest! (or...the OTHER love interest)
Wilder.
Oh, Wilder...I'm not sure how I feel about you. Like in all relationships, Wilder and Maisie had their ups and downs...to say the least. At some points I was like: "He's too good to be real", then at others I found myself muttering: "You sneaky little..."
But hey, that's how you know you've got a good book in your hands. THE FEELS.
Then, there's Luther.
The childhood best friend. The confidant. Luther is like a brother to Maisie, and like a son to her parents. Both were homeschooled together. Both live in the same neighborhood.
Both are confused in the area of love.
Love triangles are by far not my favorite, but one reason for that is when the best friend gets pushed aside, and then gets all despondent and vows never to love another. This was not the case in Dangerous.
I shall say no more. I promised. NO SPOILERS.
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All in all, this book was amazing and has earned it's place in my list of favorites!
(Along with the rest of Shannon Hale's novels.)
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Five Stars
Ages 14+
(romance, sexual references, and death)
