Book Review: Blackout by Robison Wells

Blackout
Blackout #1
Author: Robison Wells
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction
Release Date: October 1st 2013
Review Source: HarperTeen

Homeland meets Marie Lu's Legend in Blackout, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Ally Condie called "a thrilling combination of Wells's trademark twists and terror. Fantastic!"

Laura and Alec are highly trained teenage terrorists. Jack and Aubrey are small-town high school students. There was no reason for their paths to ever cross.

But now a mysterious virus is spreading throughout America, infecting teenagers with impossible superpowers—and all teens are being rounded up, dragged to government testing facilities, and drafted into the army to fight terrorism. Suddenly, Jack, Laura, Aubrey, and Alec find their lives intertwined in a complex web of deception, loyalty, and catastrophic danger—where one wrong choice could trigger an explosion that ends it all.

Known for his inception like style of writing, Robison Wells provides an interesting novel dealing with America and terrorism. Filled with suspension and haunting scenes, Black Out is a dramatic blend of realism and science fiction. Using characters that come alive, Wells creates very complex relationships. These relationships add to the daunting twist and turns that he creates along with thrilling shocks that seem to come from all angles haunting the reader.

In Blackout we follow the perspective of four young people. Two are somewhat normal teenagers while the other two happen to be teenage terrorists. Working in a group, the trained teenagers also each happen to have a special power that aids them in their deeds of terror. The two sets of teenagers meet up later in the novel amidst turmoil in the country. Written with amazing originality, Robison Wells provides the literature world with the perfect book that reflects the times. Similar to how movies reflect the state of the country. Blackout plays somewhat on the fears of the people, which in turn creates such a strong emotion in readers. Finally, Wells uses a blistering pace in his writing style causing readers to rarely want to put this book down. He provides readers with a chillingly balanced novel that does a great job of making you think about the future throughout the entire novel.