My Review of Anywhere But Here
I’ve not read anything from Morrow before, so I went into this prequel to the Starborn Uprising with fresh eyes. While I wasn’t amazed or overly-impressed with Anywhere But Here, I’m happy to report that it does contain some pleasingly solid writing that made the book seem much shorter than it actually was.
This has most of your typical post-apocalyptic novel bullet points. Bands of Raiders. Isolated Towns. Zombies. Young female protagonist. Toe-rags that ultimately redeem themselves, etc. Again, though, its well-written enough that you still enjoy the story regardless of its unoriginal plot points. However, I liked that the virus seemed to be alien in origin (or at least somewhat unique in its presentation of symptoms), and also that there wasn’t a lot of time spent on how it happened. It just happened.
Now, the weak point that Anywhere but Here isn’t necessarily the fact that its told from multiple POVs, but that the POVs are very similar. In fact, they’re so similar that at times, especially during the first half, its hard to keep everything straight in your head. The reason for the similarity is kind of explained a bit towards the end of the book, but its really not a good enough reason. For POVs like this to work, they really need to be sharply contrasted, and it just wasn’t the case in this novel.
Overall, though, it was a decent read and I definitely don’t regret reading it. However, it definitely doesn’t stand out amongst the crowd. I’ve no desire whatsoever to continue the series. Still, if you’re looking for something entertaining without spending money (its free at the time of this review, at least), it’s worth a glance.
Click here to find Anywhere But Here (The Starborn Ascension Book 1) now on Amazon.com
Title: Anywhere But Here | Series: The Starborn Ascension #1 | Author: Jason Morrow | Publisher: Self-published | Pub. Date: 2014-3-7 | Pages: 454 | ASIN: B00IVPOBT2 | Genre: Science Fiction | Language: English | Triggers: None | Rating: 3 out of 5 | Date Read: 2016-2-2 | Source: Kindle Free Book | Available on Kindle Unlimited? No
