Title: Nine
Author: Zach Hines
Pub. Date: August 7th, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 320
Pub. Date: August 7th, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Rate: 2.5/5 stars
Synopsis :
In an alternate world startlingly close to our own, humans have nine lives—and they can’t wait to burn straight through them.
As you shed lives, you shed your awkward phases: one death is equal to one physical and mental upgrade. Julian’s friends are obsessed with the idea of burning lives, but Julian is determined to stay on his first for as long as he can. His mother, the ultimate cautionary tale, burned through her first eight in just a few years, and Julian has no intention of succumbing to the debilitating rebirth sickness that she inflicted on herself.
But the regime has death incentives aimed at controlling overpopulation, and Julian realizes that he’s going to have to burn at some point—especially when he becomes a target for Nicholas, the manipulative leader of the Burners, the school’s suicide club. And when Julian eventually succumbs, he uncovers suspicious gaps in the rebirth system that may explain exactly why his mother went so far down the rabbit hole years ago. Along with a group of student dissenters, Julian sets out to find answers and is soon on the verge of exposing the greatest conspiracy ever unleashed on the world.
He has just eight more lives to uncover the brutal truth.
As you shed lives, you shed your awkward phases: one death is equal to one physical and mental upgrade. Julian’s friends are obsessed with the idea of burning lives, but Julian is determined to stay on his first for as long as he can. His mother, the ultimate cautionary tale, burned through her first eight in just a few years, and Julian has no intention of succumbing to the debilitating rebirth sickness that she inflicted on herself.
But the regime has death incentives aimed at controlling overpopulation, and Julian realizes that he’s going to have to burn at some point—especially when he becomes a target for Nicholas, the manipulative leader of the Burners, the school’s suicide club. And when Julian eventually succumbs, he uncovers suspicious gaps in the rebirth system that may explain exactly why his mother went so far down the rabbit hole years ago. Along with a group of student dissenters, Julian sets out to find answers and is soon on the verge of exposing the greatest conspiracy ever unleashed on the world.
He has just eight more lives to uncover the brutal truth.
Review:
Anyway, Nine takes place in a parallel world where people have nine lives, and the higher life you are on - the more benefits you get from the government. With a higher life, you get more food rations, entrance to a better college, a better job, and a nicer house. So basically, they are encouraging you to burn through your lives. This is being done to control the population. This honestly sounded like such a good dystopian to me and the premise is amazing, which is why I'm do disappointed the novel as a whole fell short for me. Our main character, Julian, refuses to burn his lives, which I don't get why? It's well known that it's important to burn lives to earn money for your family and get a good job. The burners club at school hosts parties to burn lives - and Julian attends them like a mega creeper, trying to dampen everyone's fun, and is also super judgmental while he's there. Mr. Hines tries to peg the burners as the bad guys - but I liked them. They had a semblance of a personality, unlike our wet mop, Julian. Also, I supposed Julian is just innately SO SPECIAL he already knows burning is not natural. It started getting really weird when he can talk to these gross cicadas popping up everywhere and random cats (nine lives, hehe). Save me the special snowflake trope.
I probably liked Julian the least. Right up there with Cody, his partner in crime. None of the characters really resonated with me. There were some semi-interesting characters, but we don't get to see enough of them for it to really make an impact. I liked Molly (who you initially think will be an important character), Nicholas, Constance, and Franklin. But like I mentioned, they had such small roles in the novel, that I still wasn't truly invested in them. Truthfully, I probably wouldn't have cared about the outcome of any of them.
So, if I could compare this book to already published books - I'd have to say it's similar to books like The Maze Runner, Scythe, The Unwind Series, etc. Which, is actually quite strange, considering I love all of those books but am not really a fan of this one. I'm not sure if I'll read a follow up to this one. It left a lot of unanswered questions, but I'm not sure if I care enough about any of it to find out. I've been hurting for a new dystopian since YA is now saturated with the same kind of fantasy, but unfortunately, this is not what I've been looking for.
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| Thank you to Harper Collins for providing this book in exchange for my honest review |
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