The Society Book One: Genesis
Jennifer Word
Jessica Wembly is a normal human being as far as she knows. She’s got a typical life of a mid-twenties woman, and yet someone is suddenly interested in her. She is captured, and taken to a hidden facility – but isn’t brought down without a fight. Her reluctance to give up forms the skeleton around which escape plans are made.
This cover isn’t as pretty as the version I have (not to mention horrifically bad quality from GoodReads). *Update, I took a photo of the book cover I have. Pretty!* These people don’t have anything to do with plants at all! But a plain, simple cover means that the inside can be all the more intriguing.
The novel cuts a fine line between evolution, science-fiction, and faith. Creationism is in full force for some of the characters, and others try to think of things as just fate, or normal evolution that other people are coming up with.
I found the aliens a little hard to stomach, but in for a cent, in for a dollar? I had gone along with the rest of the novel, and the idea of the mutants having been created, so there was no point in disbelieving it. I’d be interested to see what comes out of the second novel.
I felt like that with more polishing this novel could have been very powerful. Some relationships that could have been more explored, and some language that made me a bit doubtful at times but all this was held up by a solid storyline and multiple intrigues for each character. Nothing like a little love side story, and some knowledge that is missing from everyone’s minds (including the mind-reader’s) to keep things interesting.
I wasn’t entirely convinced by the state of Jessica when in solitary confinement. What would I know though? I never felt like she was in real danger – someone with her abilities, even with PTSD, would still be useful to the government and wouldn’t be allowed to die. Whether they would escape or not, that was another thing, and it was definitely not certain.
Sadly, I was hit with poor research right from the beginning. A ‘special substance’ is added to the drinking water the moment inhabitants arrive at the facility. The only problem there is that the substance is ATP. Now, for those of you who aren’t science nerds like me, basically ATP is what makes your entire body function. Your body would actually just use it as normal fuel, no matter how much you tried to ingest. Every time the doctor mentioned it, the more frustrated I became. So basically, the background of the science is wrong – but it didn’t effect the rest of the story.
To be totally transparent, when Jennifer contacted me to ask me to review her novel, she was looking for an honest review after a spate of ‘glowing’ reviews, to find something she might improve on, and a bit of variety in her review ratings! That hasn’t actually made me want to give her any particular stars from me, so take it as my word that I think this novel is worth 3 to 4 stars, and isn’t a waste of your time. All those ‘negative points’ aren’t as much negative as helpful.
