Book Review: A Time to Die

My first book review!

     

Genre: YA Dystopian

Author: Nadine Brandes

Series: Out Of Time

Title: A Time To Die (Book #1)

Overall Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

From time to time I will read books to try them out for recommendation to my daughter or her friends or maybe even the students in my classes at co-op. This is one of those books. I mostly read fluff type novels for entertainment but occasionally will pick up a YA dystopian to break up the reading list a bit. I checked this book out of our local e-library and read it on my Kindle. 

I finished the book; that's a plus. It took me several chapters to get into this novel. I don't normally give books too much of my time to convince me to stay with them if they don't appeal at first but I felt like this one had something there that made me push through the first few chapters. In the end I'm glad I did. 

Here's a summary of the book from Goodreads :

How would you live if you knew the day you'd die?Parvin Blackwater has wasted her life. At only seventeen, she has one year left according to the Clock by her bedside.
In a last-ditch effort to make a difference, she tries to rescue Radicals from the crooked justice system. But when the authorities find out about her illegal activity, they cast her through the Wall -- her people's death sentence.
What she finds on the other side about the world, about eternity, and about herself changes Parvin forever and might just save her people. But her Clock is running out.

Parvin's character was hard for me to appreciate. I found myself wishing she would grow more, develop more depth, that I could relate to her more but overall the book was filled with well thought out characters who had real life struggles. It was a hard read in that the characters had lots of hardships; they endured suffering; there were trials that were sometimes shocking. I liked the way Mrs. Brandes created  a sort of parable for redemption of wrongs. Her imagination is very evident throughout the novel. The message of Christ was clear but not pushy or preachy. 

I do like my books to end with a somewhat "finished" storyline even when they are part of a series and this one didn't feel finished at the end. My library did not have the second book in the series and I didn't feel compelled to purchase it to get my questions answered. Overall it was an interesting read and I would recommend it if you are looking for this type of genre and aren't put off by your characters experiencing hardships and trials. Be prepared to read the series to get the whole story.