Review: ARV-3

Title: ARV-3 (The After Light Saga #1)

Author: Cameo Renae

Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published: November 26, 2013

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After all the nuclear power plants melted down all life on the surface had changed because of the nuclear fallout. A few thousand managed to take shelter underground. Abi along with fourteen others took shelter in an underground bunker. Thirteen years later they went up top to try and make it to a government facility and safety. Once above ground they encountered what was left of humanity, zombie like creatures, known as arvies, who still had intelligence.

I thought the concept behind this book was fantastic and really interesting. I was willing to suspend my level of disbelief at least to a point. Then I got past the prologue. Abi introduced us to the bunker, all ten levels. She went through what each levels purpose was. She started with level one and then moved onto two and so on. Then when we reached level ten she moved onto the fifteen people who lived there. She listed them, their names, personality traits, main job within the bunker and so on. The only way I would have been able to remember everything was if I was to make a chart. I might have had a better chance if the author had introduced the characters or the different levels in a natural setting. One example might have been Abi going to level five for lunch and her grandmother happened to make it for her. That would have made it a lot easier to remember and the story would have flowed more naturally. Another thing I wasn't sure about, why spend so much time and energy explaining the different levels of the bunker when after the first part of the book the characters abandoned the shelter? They weren't going back, but still we needed to know what was on level ten.

I understand Abi really didn't have a lot of choice for a romantic partner, but when she started going on and on about the physical attractiveness behind the hotty known as Finn I thought okay just get together already. The relationship was drawn out and still they managed to not actually have a romance for an amazingly long time.

At certain points I wondered why they went into battle. They could have easily avoided the arvies, saved ammunition and avoided potential bodily damage. Of course that would have made far to much sense. Lets go into this building, oh no there is noise from levels above the characters. Instead of leaving and trying another building it made much more sense to keep going up and fight unknown numbers of potential killers. Yep made sense to me.

Overall I gave this book 2 stars out of 5.