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Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Series: Under the Never Sky #1
Publication date: January 3rd, 2012
Pages: 374
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived on Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered.
This was worse.
Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland--known as The Death Shop--are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild--a savage--and her only hope of staying alive.
A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile--everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.
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Review:
When I picked up this book I had not heard a great deal about it yet. I went into reading it completely blind without having read any fellow blogger's reviews, which may have made it possible to judge the book solely on how I interpreted it.
The book starts in another version of the vast array of dystopian books out there. In this one, a solar flare causes the earth's atmosphere to drastically change to the point where domes were built to protect the inhabitants of Earth. However, not everyone was one of the Chosen who were permitted into the dome, thus dividing the human race into Dwellers and Outsiders. Aria, our female protagonist, is a Dweller. Her mother is a scientist stationed on a different dome far away. She has not heard from her mother or seen her in the Realms, a virtual reality type computer software that Dwellers are inhabiting more often than "the real", and she sets out to find out what may have happened to her.
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Aria gets caught in the cross-hairs of the leaders of her dome home. As Dwellers are meant to die once they leave their domes, they find a fitting punishment to be dropping her off in the middle of nowhere hoping she perishes either under an onslaught of Aether storms or by the hands of Outsiders, also known as savages.
As it would be a rather short book and series if Aria did perish in such a manner, she survives with the help of our male protagonist, Peregrine or Perry. Aria, the Dweller, and Perry, the Outsider, come to an understanding that they will search for Perry's nephew and Aria's mother together. And so an alliance is born and subsequent romance starts.
The relationship between Perry and Aria was incredibly believable. There was no real "love at first sight" and for all intents and purposes they truly did hate each other at the beginning. As they started to work together and develop feelings, it flowed smoothly. They gained something from each other that they desperately needed. Aria learned to be a survivor and Perry learned that people aren't always how they seem to be. Two enemies taught to hate each other learn to love each other in a very Romeo and Juliet type of way.
This book was by far one of the better books I have read this year. It was written very well and easy to understand. The characters all flowed very well together and the adventures and tribulations that Perry and Aria faced throughout their journey were interesting. I found myself wanting to learn more and more about this dystopian world and the two groups of humans that inhabit it. Rossi did an amazing job and I highly recommend this book to dystopia readers everywhere.
