*Guest post
Many dystopian books all have the same feeling around them. The world sucks, but everyone is meant to think that everything is amazing and perfect, set up in a way that allows them to live their best life. The Girl Who Dared to Think is a dystopian book much like this, but the world within the book is much different.
Liana, the main character, is a young adult who doesn’t quite fit into the world she has been born into. She lives in The Tower, which is all that is left of the world. After global warming caused many disasters, the world became nothing but radiation – but before everything fell apart, humans made The Tower which is it’s own ecosystem, all monitored by Scorpio.
Scorpio is a computer program that is a part of every single person in The Tower. This program makes all of the decisions – including deciding if you are a helpful and good part of the Tower. People are given a chip at birth, attached to the back of their heads, which is used to communicate and rank them among the other citizens. This ranking determines how much power you have and where you are able to go. Other citizens in the tower respect higher numbers while they look down on lower numbers. Liana is a lower number, which causes a lot of problems for her and her family within the tower. Your rank becomes lower by questioning the wants and wills of the Tower, as well as having any sort of negative thoughts.
Along with the assigned numbers, people are assigned different departments within the Tower, to allow every department to have strong workers that fit in well with the area they need. Liana is a Knight – meant to keep citizens safe and make sure that lower numbers are held accountable for their own actions. Being a low-level knight, in a family of very high ranking knights, continues to cause her mental health to decrease.
Liana has to find a way to increase her number, as the only other option is to be medicated, something that takes away the entire personality of the person who takes the pills, as well as makes it so that they can no longer even remember what they are doing or who they are. This isn’t a perfect system in the slightest and often wears off, so Liana is determined to not be on these pills. Finding a way to bypass them and keep her number high, however, opens up an entire world of illegal trade, people living below their numbers, abuse within the system, and questioning of the outside world. Soon, she finds, big crimes are being secretly committed inside the Tower – no longer crimes as they are approved by Scorpio, and they want her to partake in them.
The Girl Who Dared to Think keeps you engaged in the story, as everything is always happening all at once. In a world where every single thing you do and the way you think is monitored, it’s very challenging being an outcast. Liana is the main character in the story, but she is supported by her friends, her twin brother, a mysterious level 1 person who suddenly is a level 9, and many more characters she ends up finding her way too. The Tower is much more than this utopia, meant to save humans from the world, and continues to challenge Liana’s beliefs on what is right and wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this book – I found that the action and mystery that happened throughout the book – the discovery of the way the Tower worked through Liana’s eyes, engaging.
I do feel the biggest faltering of the book was actually the ending – as there isn’t one. This book then continues straight into the next, with the last page ending on a cliff-hanger so big that I am glad the second book was out to instantly purchase. I’m currently working my way through book two, so keep an eye out for that in the future!
About the author
Life with Jupiter and Dann – click here to visit their blog, featuring articles from Jupiter and Dan about their lives and everything they do. From reviews, days out, adventures, recipes and so much more.
Great review!
Seems like an interesting read. I also have a character named Liana but mine is a werewolf.
Great review! Thank you for sharing! This seems interesting!
It sounds like a very innovative writer! I’m going to have to check this book out!
I’ve seen this before but I wasn’t too sure about it. Like you said in the beginning, dystopia books are quite similar. However, true, it seems to be a bit different than others and I like the Scorpio concept ( thinking about China was planning to do for its citizens…) I will look into it!
Wow…..what an interesting plot and storyline. This author is very imaginative. And you make me interested to read this book. Thank you for sharing your review.
This puts me very much in mind of Logan’s Run, a film that was released in the 1970’s with Michael York and Jenny Agutter. It sounds really interesting, I’ll have to look out for it, thank you!
This sounds like a fun read! I like reading dystopian novels because I think it’s so interesting to see how different authors visualize the worlds of the book. It makes me think of the Divergent series that I love
This sounds really interesting! Thank you for sharing!
This is not my usual sort of book but it sounds good.
Wow, this sounds like a very interesting book! I have never come across anything set up quite like the Tower so I love that this has a different world approach to it along with an interesting character. Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like an enjoyable book! I’m not a fan of cliff hangers but I like that the second book takes up where the last left off. Lovely review!
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
Oh! The ending would have gotten to me – I like a cliffhanger but not a complete one. I like one book to stand alone in a sense
I would hate to read a book which didn’t have a proper ending, but this does sound like a good book nonetheless! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
This is not my usual type of read but I have been branching out on genre’s recently so maybe it is worth a try x x
Oooh this sounds like such an interesting book! I’m definitely going to check this out!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
Sounds like an interesting ready. If the second book hadn’t been available would you have been okay with the cliffhanger? Or would it have been one of those things where you’re like, that’s bad business?
Ooh this sounds really good, will have to add it to my maybe pile! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 🙂
This sounds like a really interesting read and something I’d enjoy.
Ending on such a cliff hanger is a great way to get people to purchase the next book!
This sounds like a really good book. I might see if I can get an audio version xx
I think it would annoy me that there’s no ending, especially if I didn’t have book 2 ready to go! x
Beautylymin
It sounds like an interesting read x
Oh no, it’s a huge shame about the ending! That can potentially ruin the whole book for me if the ending doesn’t feel right x
Loved your review! Sounds like a really different read xx
I’ll have to save this on Good Reads so I don’t forget! xx