Title: Pawn
Author: Aimee Carter
Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion #1
Publication: November 26th 2013 by Harlequin Teen
Genre: Dystopian ~ Young Adult
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Cover Rating: 3/5
Overall Rating: 2/5
Review copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review.
YOU CAN BE A VII IF YOU GIVE EVERYTHING.For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country.
If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister’s niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter.
There’s only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed…and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that’s not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she’s only beginning to understand.
I haven’t read anything by Aimee Carter. I do own The Goddess Test, which I am still excited to read. But Pawn left me a little unsatisfied I have to admit. I had a lot of mixed feelings reading it. At times my eyes bulged out of my head, thinking even for a dystopian book it was way too out there, which is definitely the most part of my dislike for it. But at other times I must say I did like all the unexpected twists. These made me want to read on and not give it up. So, yeah, like I said; mixed feelings.
Some of the laws in Pawn were just plain absurd. When people turn seventeen they have to take a test that will give you your number (I – VII). So basically how smart you are will lead to what number you will get. The lower the number you have the less smart you apparently are and less of a good life you have.
Also, the rankings from I to VII reminded me a bit of The Selection. And let me just tell you lately I’ve not been happy with that book either so this was nog a good thing. No. Just no…
And then another thing, these characters… Especially the main character Kitty. I couldn’t like her or almost any other character. I couldn’t connect with her. Sure, I felt bad this crap happened to her but she should’ve known that if she said yes to be a VII that bad things would happen. Even when she got Masked, I felt like she had no personality. Like she just all took it with almost no complaining. It didn’t even feel like she was upset about it.
As for the other characters, they were also very dull to me. Don’t get me started on the Harts. The only ones that I did like were Knox and Greyson. The others I didn’t really care for. As for Benjy (Kitty’s boyfriend) I don’t know yet. I couldn’t really get a grasp of him.
I am glad, though, that the romance in this book was more in the background and that there already was a excisting romance between Kitty and Benjy. At least that was a plus point for me. I see more and more authors doing this, especially in this genre. I really like that.
Overall Pawn was a bizarre (not in the good way) dystopian novel that I really wanted to like but didn’t. It was just okay for me. It was a pretty quick read and not hard to get into, I’ll give it that… but in the end this really wasn’t the right book for me. I might read the sequel though, just to see what’s going to happen next.
Aimée Carter was born and raised in Michigan, where she currently resides. Her first novel for young adults, THE GODDESS TEST, is published by Harlequin Teen on April 19th, 2011. The sequel, GODDESS INTERRUPTED, followed in January 2012.
Ahh that Kitty name xD I do like the cover though. Simple, but pretty