Review :: Pandora Jones: Admission :: Barry Jonsberg
December 26, 2017I was lucky enough in December to win a couple of book giveaways on social media, including one from Allen & Unwin for this dystopian #loveozYA novel - Pandora Jones: Admission.
Now, I hadn't heard of this book before I won it in the giveaway, but when it arrived it sounded so good I started reading right away. And I was hooked right from the prologue.
It's set in the near future (I think) and has kind of a creepy, chilling Stephen King vibe at the start, when a plague pandemic has swept the globe, wiping out most of humanity. Our protagonist, Pandora Jones, wakes up in some kind of infirmary in a quarantined facility called 'The School', where she joins a group of other young people who are being trained in all kinds of survival skills. Pandora has a feeling something isn't quite right, and we follow in her pursuit of the truth.
I felt like we were given a pretty good introduction to the characters, although there is definitely space forore development in the next books. I thought they were all pretty engaging (though not all likeable!) and the story super intriguing - it is quite twisty but you are given enough to have your own theories about what is happening, which I love. Because of this I found it page-turner-y, and felt like the plot moved along quickly. There were a few holes where I thought something didn't quite make sense, or I wanted to know more, but this is the first in a series so I expect there will be some fleshing out later, and overall I really enjoyed it - the next books in the series are at the top of my post-Christmas book shopping list.
I think this would be a perfect read for fans of the Divergent or Darkest Minds series, on account of the dystopian setting with teens in training aspect, and it has a bit of a Hunger Games feel too. It was also a great primer for one of my 2018 reading resolutions, which is to read more books by Australian authors - especially YA - and I'm looking forward to sharing loads of them here!
I gave this one 4.5 stars and can't wait to get the sequel.
Xo Bron
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