My Rating ~ Four stars

4-gold-stars copy

TO BE RELEASED: 14 August 2018

Publisher: Wednesday Books / St Martin’s Press

Format: E-Book

Pages: 352 pages

Source: Received from St Martin’s Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Available for pre order here:

Book Depository | Amazon Au | Booktopia | Angus & Robertson

Blurb

In a freezing world, where everyone knows the day they will die, three teens break all odds.

Franny Bluecastle, a tough city teen, dreams of dying in opulence, to see wealth she’s never known. Like the entire world, she believes it’s impossible to dodge a deathday.

Until the day she does.

Court Icecastle knows wealth. He also knows pain. Spending five years in Vorkter Prison, a fortress of ice and suffering, he dreams of life beyond the people that haunt him and the world that imprisoned him.

Mykal Kickfall fights for those he loves. The rugged Hinterlander shares a frustrating yet unbreakable connection with Court—which only grows more lawless and chaotic as their senses and emotions connect with Franny.

With the threat of people learning they’ve dodged their deathdays, they must flee their planet to survive. But to do so, all three will have to hide their shared bond as they vie for a highly sought after spot in the newest mission to space. Against thousands of people far smarter, who’ll live longer, and never fear death the way that they do.

Review

Many thanks to St Martin’s Press for providing me with an E-ARC of this book to review via Netgalley.

In the world within The Raging Ones, everyone knows the day they will die. Some are “Babes”, those who will die before they are 8 years old, some are “Fast-trackers”, those who will die before their early twenties and some are “Influentials”, those who will live to an old age. Fast Trackers and Influentials are worlds apart – due to the fact that they will not have enough time to influence the world, Fast Trackers are denied education and only have jobs of a menial or laborious nature offered to them. They live ‘fast’, cramming as much partying, drugs and sex into their short lives as they can. Influentials are offered top education from an early age and nurtured into the best jobs and lifestyles.

Franny knows she will die at 17, it is on her “deathday” card. But she doesn’t die. Her deathday comes and passes, with her still alive. The same thing has happened to Court and Mykal – strangers who met when a bizarre emotional and physical connection drew them together. They have been working towards passing themselves off as Influentials (instead of the Babe and Fast-Tracker they were born to be) so they can try out for a secret mission into space. When Franny finds herself connected to the boys in the same strange way, they all decide to try out for positions in the space program together, to avoid anyone finding out they have dodged their death day.

While fighting for a place in the program and attempting to understand their connection, they also need to deal with the fact that they now have no idea when they will die.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the lack of a love triangle! Two boys and a girl and it wasn’t about the boys fighting over the affections of said girl! Instead, it’s made clear very early on that the boys share a romantic connection and Franny is absolutely content to be the close friend and nothing more. What a rare find in a YA book!

I found the whole premise of the book really intriguing and I love a book that can make me ask myself how I would feel in the situation. How would it be, knowing the day you will die. Knowing you only have a short amount of time, or forever? Would you waste it? What would be the point of aiming for any sort of dreams if you knew for a fact that you’d be gone before you realised them? Franny’s fear at suddenly not knowing when she would die – that it could be at any time even made me feel anxious for her, regardless of the fact that that’s what we live with every day!

I thought this book was great, the world building was beautiful and I’m really looking forward to the sequel. The only reason I hesitated to give it a full five stars was due to a couple of things that bugged me. Court makes several references to the fact that he was in prison from very early on in the book, and it keeps leading up to finding out why (he is too scared to tell anyone because it is so terrible), then, when we did find out, it was kind of…stupid? Parts of the ending just felt a bit too convenient and there were a few other things I felt needed more explanation, but they’re hard to explain without spoilers! But all round it was a really fun, fast paced and engaging read!