I’ll admit it. I requested to read this book solely because of the awesome spider on the front cover. Yes, I quickly glanced at the blurb so was intrigued by how the prison escape would unfold but really, the spider had already clinched the deal.
This is a place they send people to die when they’ve done something wrong. Really wrong.
Lezah is number twenty-two. She’s in prison but has no memory of committing a crime, and the clock on her metal bracelet is counting down to her expiration date.
Escaping this prison will be harder than Lezah can imagine. She doesn’t know who she can trust and every step of the way is fraught with danger. With plenty of action and countless spiders, Lezah learns that there’s a lot more at stake than she realised.
In a world that could easily become ours in the not too distant future if we’re not careful, climate change has altered the landscape and technology is potentially awesome or scary as hell, depending on who’s controlling it.
The pace was maintained throughout the story and the characters were faced with almost constant danger. The world was interesting and the sequences in the prison were well thought out. I really liked Vaughn and wanted to get to know her more.
The romance didn’t work for me at all; it felt insta and unnecessary. This is probably just me but I tend to find it amusing rather than sweet when a girl has time to appreciate a boy’s eyes or the way he smells when an entire group of people are in potentially mortal danger. I keep thinking they’re wasting time focusing on that when they could be making a better plan to escape; they could ogle to their heart’s content once they’re safe.
I made the mistake of rereading the blurb around the halfway point and realised it spoiled a couple of things characters hadn’t figured out or revealed yet. It wasn’t until I was past 60% before the characters caught up.
I’d encourage you to read some five star reviews of this book. I got dazzled by the cover spider and enjoyed the story overall but I found some aspects of it very predictable. While there were several lengthy info dumps I was left with so many unanswered questions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Teen, an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC, for the opportunity to read this book.
Once Upon a Blurb
Six days.
That’s the amount of time until Lezah’s execution.
She’ll die never knowing what got her locked up in this godforsaken prison in the first place. Her only chance of survival is to escape. Except the monitoring bracelet that digs into her wrist, the roaming AI, and the implant in her neck make freedom close to impossible.
Her best chance is to team up with the four other inmates who are determined to break out, even if one of them is beyond (gorgeous) annoying – oh, and in for murder. But he has a secret of his own. One that could break Lezah if she finds out, but could also set him free.
Figuring out how to work with him and the rest of this mismatched group of criminals is the only way Lezah will survive to see the outside world again.
But nothing in this prison is as it seems. And no one.
Schizanthus Nerd 