Genre: Young Adult, Science-Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic

Pages: 323

Published: March 18th 2014 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

No one has set foot on Earth in centuries — until now.

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth’s radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents — considered expendable by society — are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life…or it could be a suicide mission.

CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she’s haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor’s son, came to Earth for the girl he loves — but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.

Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind’s last hope.

crownfullrating

What the what? I don’t know what I actually just read! I was turned onto this book due to a friend getting me hooked on watching the show via Netflix. For CW the show is actually not bad at all, but I knew that they changed a lot when they made The 100 into a TV series. Now I know why.

So, loosely — after a nuclear war X hundred years ago the earth was deemed unsafe and so a good amount of the population took to the skies. Well, it wasn’t built to last forever so flash forward a few hundred years later and it starts to break down. The way they handle it is they ship 100 of their miscreant youths to earth to see if it is safe to inhabit.

Boom, there you go, a pretty nifty setup if you ask me. Add in some troubled teens/young adults and there is a recipe for some rather splendid action – actual action and not any hanky-panky.

Clarke, Bellamy, Wells, and Glass are the alternating individuals in which the chapters are dedicated to and each one has a different personality. Does it make me like them anymore? No. I think, maybe, if I didn’t watch the show then I probably wouldn’t even find myself in like with Bellamy & Clarke, but I shamelessly ship them. Not going to lie!

This is a brand new world to them and initially, we get to see Bellamy exploring it, tasting it, feeling it and becoming acquainted with Earth but that’s basically it. There are so many opportunities to branch out and delve deeper into the world and really all this book offered to the reader was past issues brought to the present. There was flashback upon flashback. There was a lot Morgan could have embellished on rather than stir the pot with the relationships because I’m not anymore attached to the characters than what I was in the first chapter. It did nothing to create a bond.

If Morgan wanted us to see the important of specific moments, sure, but to have a flashback per character every.single.chapter… it’s ridiculous. Perhaps there should have been a prequel written instead.

Needless to say, I nearly DNF’d this, I trudged through it because of Bellarke. I can see why writers would want to pick this up for a TV show because the groundwork is there, it’s just sad the execution was not. The changes that were made via TV show I think were for the better, minus the whole jerking us around with Bellarke. 😉