I've been slow with reviews so far this year so I believe this is my first one of the year(the first book i've finished this year too)
I was introduced to this author through another author I've conversed with in the past. She thought that I may click with Mrs.Hanova, based on her characters being multicultural in a dystopian setting. My sister read it first and to be honest, it's really hard reading anything immediately after her because she tends to divulge really important details, so I needed a while to "forget" what she told me. When I saw Natasha was having a blog tour, I jumped on the chance to read it and add it to my "read" books for the year!
Edge of Truth follows Rena Moon, a somewhat rebellious teenage girl in a kind of "The Hunger Games-like" setting. She seems to be always getting herself in some sort of little trouble and to make matters worse she's an OTHER, a person who has a unique ability but is seen as an abomination or unnatural. So she must hide her secret and pray for a way to get out of the hell hole that is Quad 3. When her best friend is kip-napped (for something Rena blames herself for) Rena sets out on a quest to rescue her best friend with the help of her long time crush, Nevan.
Edge of truth is a book that I think I liked but got a little lost in the descriptions. There were really awesome things about the book. Number one being her love interest, Nevan. Natasha and I talked about it in the past when I hosted her on my book blog Twinja Book Reviews and she mentioned Nevan being mixed race. I identified with that strongly because my boyfriend is of mixed race and he's always asking me what it is I find so fascinating about pale, sparkly white boys in books, lol. It's not that i find it fascinating, it's just there's so little to choose from when it comes to POC in books. I kinda wanted to shove this book in his face(childish and all) and say "HA, you wanted it!You got it!A bi-racial boy as the center of a female's attention!!!! (Disclaimer:I may or may not have done that)
When I read and review books, I tend to choose books based off whether or not there's diversity in the book, not because I don't like reading books with solely white characters but because I get more out of books that include characters for every reader and not just a "token"character. I wasn't completely sure if the main character was a POC or a non person of color. She was the only one that wasn't described enough to paint a picture for me. There were a bunch of comments on her hair, which she wore in braids, but braids to one person may mean two french braids.....Braids to me means box braids, micro braids , senegalese twists, cornrows so that was the only thing I had to go with in terms of her description. I pictured Antonia Thomas from the UK show misfits because of her freckles and lighter hair, but with twists. If she was in deed a POC, she wasn't stereotypical, which I enjoyed. I wish I could say I've read more books in the dystopian sub-genre that included more POC as lead characters and love interests, so I think that's the reason the book stood out to me.
Another few awesome things about it were her family life. Even though she was a bit of a troublemaker, at home she had to be the responsible older sister to her twin brothers(TWINS, YAY!) and her family seemed close. Family always seems to take a backseat in YA novels, as if teenagers can just "raise"themselves. So thumbs up with that!
The whole "Other" concept was somewhat like Mutants in X-men. Other's aren't an excepted group of people and Rena's abilities were really unique. I think the closest thing I could compare it to is to anyone who's a fan of Avatar:The Last Airbender, a character named Toph had a similar ability, she felt the "earth". In Avatar, it was called Earth Bending, but in Edge of Truth it was a unique ability only Rena had.(possibly...)I'd love to see more Other's if she plans to make it a series and it'd be great if she expanded on Rena's power.
Sometimes lost in descriptions and the world building. I guess I was confused to why they had some luxuries but didn't have essential things. Maybe I picked up on some things other reads didn't but it wasn't exactly a deal breaker, I still enjoyed it immensely! I think any fans of The Hunger Games, or Divergent would really like this book, especially if you'd like to read a dystopian novel that features a Women of color as the main character and a multiracial love interest.
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