Becoming~C.B Stone | Review

Title: Becoming (Absence of Song #2)
Author: C.B. Stone
Genre: YA/Dystopian
Length: 165 Pages
Publication: March 2015

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Jaelynn and Noah are caught after awakening the dead valley that surrounds them. New revelations are made concerning the Ministry and their mission. Family bonds are tested. Lives are threatened. And people starve in a drought ridden land. 

Review

I really enjoyed this novel. This is my fifth novel by CB Stone and I really enjoy her style and the worlds she imagines. They are different than many other dystopian worlds I've read about in the past. Here are some of my thoughts. 

I really like Noah and this is the first novel where we get his perspective on some of the events. I love dual perspective stories, so this was a great surprise. I was also happy that Noah and Jaelynn's voices were easy to distinguish. That's usually the low point of multi perspective novels, when the voices are too similar. 

Some of the points of the story were very interesting and I really enjoyed the little bit that we delved into the world of the ministry and their views. It wasn't much, but it was interesting. 

I also like the use of God. These are religious novels and Jaelynn discovering God is an interesting touch to the story. She starts to gain faith. Much of the spiritual connection the characters have with God comes through song, which was outlawed years ago. 

The only low points for me were really that the story was somewhat slow in parts and that the characters didn't always seem consistent. I feel like more information could have been delivered in some scenes to make them matter more. Also a little more consistency in the thoughts of the characters and their reactions, particularly Jaelynn, would be nice. She seems to have very different thoughts within a single paragraph that don't really follow each other. Her decisions seem kind of sporadic at times. 

I think all of this could easily be fixed, however, and improve this story greatly. As it is, this story was really fun and fast to read with interesting characters and a fascinating world.