[Review] Extraction by Stephanie Diaz

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Title: Extraction

Author: Stephanie Diaz

Series: Extraction #1

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: July 22nd 2014

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Source: e-ARC via NetGalley

Synopsis:
"Welcome to Extraction testing."

Clementine has spent her whole life preparing for her sixteenth birthday, when she’ll be tested for Extraction in the hopes of being sent from the planet Kiel’s toxic Surface to the much safer Core, where people live without fear or starvation. When she proves promising enough to be “Extracted,” she must leave without Logan, the boy she loves. Torn apart from her only sense of family, Clem promises to come back and save him from brutal Surface life.

What she finds initially in the Core is a utopia compared to the Surface—it’s free of hard labor, gun-wielding officials, and the moon's lethal acid. But life is anything but safe, and Clementine learns that the planet's leaders are planning to exterminate Surface dwellers—and that means Logan, too.

Trapped by the steel walls of the underground and the lies that keep her safe, Clementine must find a way to escape and rescue Logan and the rest of the planet. But the planet leaders don't want her running—they want her subdued.

With intense action scenes and a cast of unforgettable characters,Extraction is a page-turning, gripping read, sure to entertain lovers ofHunger Games and Ender's Game and leave them breathless for more.

I received an e-ARC from St.Martin's Griffin via NetGalley for an honest review. This fact in no shape or form affects my review. Except for the existence of the review itself. I received no compensation for this review in any way.This is my honest opinion of the work.

In the world of EXTRACTION, the surface of the planet Kiel is no longer very inhabitable due to the acid being released by their moon. In order to survive, they moved underneath the surface where there are three levels, the Crust, the Mantle and the Core. There are still some who live on the Surface as well as there is a man made shield protecting them from the acid. All live in poverty and labour camps aside from those who live in the Core. There is an almost Divergent-esque sorting process in which at sixteen, they are tested for their "promise" level. Those with the highest promise are sent to the core to live a life of luxury and freedom.

ughhhhhhh. I hate the main character so much. I wanted to strangle her from the beginning. The main character and narrator's name is Clementine. And of course being the main character, she has to be some sort of special snowflake. I think her "special snowflake"-ness was a little over the top. Clementine can be very whiny. I hate whiny characters. Ugh. And even though she's supposed to be intelligent since she made it to the Core, SHE DOESN'T USE HER BRAIN. She talks about Yate's Equation a lot and how it's the hardest equation to solve. She has all that brain power to solve it in 45 seconds, and she can't figure out how to get herself out of whatever difficult situation she's in. I really want to strangle her. A lot.

Surprisingly though, there are some things that Clementine says that I rather enjoyed.

"I've dreamed about this day for years. I've longed for it. I've dreaded it."

"How could he say that? If I'm selfish, it's because I want to survive. It's because there's no way I'll ever escape this place if I care too much about anyone else."

"I don't like that he thinks I need saving. In the safety of my head and heart, I know I'm strong and brave, but not everyone sees it. I need them to see it, to believe I can survive without their help, because that's the only way I'll learn to survive on my own."

I really enjoyed the world though, and the conceptual idea of it. There is the core and there's the crust and the mantle and then there's the surface. Each sector is responsible for a different thing, kind of like how it was in the Hunger Games. Things about the world building get more interesting as things are revealed to you in the book. The book gets a smidgen 1984-esque later in the book too.

Wow. I've made three different dystopian references in this review already. Anyways, the tldr; version of this review is that the world building was interesting and I hate the main character. I don't know if I want to read the second book in this series mainly because my hatred for Clementine really turns me off.

Happy Reading!