I want to start by saying I love the premise of this book and belive that the world is interesting. I appreciated the focus on temperature change and the exploration into what repercussions that would have to the surrounding world. I couldn't get into this book because of setting inconsistencies. To give a for instance Character A & B will be having a conversation, at a certain point Character A will leave the room with movement and leaving sounds described explicitly, Character B will not be described at all during this time. This would lead one to believe that Character A & B's conversation is over and they aren't continuing but you would be wrong. The next text provided is how Character A & B are whispering to each other. This is just one such example of setting inconsistencies. I found it very difficult to get through the book due to these but I do love the world. I think with more editing and review this could be an interesting read.

'The Community' has a very interesting concept. I love how it combines strong female characters with turning an after-collapse dystopian society into a possibly solarpunk heaven, while also exposing that in any society there are and will be problems. It's not the lack of problems that makes a society successful, but the way we as people react to those problems, and the protagonists of this story take these matters into their own hands very well.

It also had some hurdles for me. This mostly has to do with the writing style. It starts with being dunked into an event and not exactly knowing why whatever happens is so important, and then there is quite an info dump weaved into that together with a lot of new characters. It gave me the sense that I might have missed that this was a second book in a series or something like that, and that others might be aware of people's names, levels and everything already. After that the pace got way better though, even if it had its hiccups and sudden POV-changes.

All in all this is the kind of book that might not be perfect, but the story and concept totally make up for that.

This book starts out slow but quickly picks up pace, the twists will keep you guessing the whole way to the end.

Thank you NetGalley for this kindle copy.

After a solar flare burned the earth to flames the world has ended but some humanity remains.

The survivors that lived thrue the burning lives under the strict regime of The Community and they are trying to rebuild.
But every aspect of life is controlled. From food rations, to fertility even your social standing is decided thrue structure and levels.

Overall the story was interesting, the flow in the book was not as smoothly as I hoped for and some weird jumps in chapters between the characters view made the last few chapters hard to understand.

The book is giving me major vibes similar to The Giver. The exception only it tackles the problem of having a woman being pregnant.

Women in The Community are being repressed, their voices, rights, stolen since they were a child. They were given some kind of medication that would make them infertile, but our MC here got pregnant putting her in a dangerous situation.

The concept is nice. I love dystopian novels but this one didn't really captured my interest. There were slow moments where I have to stop reading because I kept getting bored. But the pace finally picked up in the quarter half of the book.

The story is about controlling women, putting them in their places. Women were given limited choices. The only thing I was scared of was that the author may kill the MC's fiance since he was already introduced at the beginning, and they are mostly killed off. But this one didn't. There are betrayals of some sort, and surprise.

It's not the best. It's not the worst, either. But it's still a good book.

The Community, by Heidi Visser, is a dystopian tale of a community dealing with the late stages of global warming, forced sterilization, and all it entails.
I enjoyed this book, and thought the main character, Nora, was very relatable if you let yourself suspend disbelief given the circumstances. The subject matter was both fascinating, and frightening, given the state of the world we currently live in and the news we ourselves hear constantly regarding global warming and the disastrous effects it will cause if not averted.
I would recommend this book to anyone old enough to deal with the subject matter, and anyone interested in dystopian fiction.
4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really felt for Nora and her predicament in this story. She is a well written character and her story is easy to identify with. Set in a grim dystopian world where your right to reproduce is no longer your choice, Nora has an illegal pregnancy and the story follows her fight to protect her unborn baby. Worth a read.

The Community is 50 years after a solar event and the people who live in the community are watched everywhere and controlled. One of the main characters, Nora, finds herself pregnant, which is illegal in the community and she has to escape for the chance to be able to have the child. Her fiancé, Nate, is the son of the most powerful person in the community. Senator Abbott has a lot of enemies within the community for the way he treats people in private. There is a lot going on in this book from a rebel group, the ignorance of the community as a whole, plotting behind the scenes, solar events still happening, and a lot of secrets being kept.
The Community was interesting. It gives a pretty accurate representation of the lengths people in power will go to in order to stay in power. I love the idea of the world having been devastated by a solar event and people still feeling the effects 50 years later. The idea of a society being controlled in every aspect of their life and having no idea of what is actually going on around them or outside the walls. The story line was interesting and I love the idea of everything that was in the book.
What I found a bit difficult was the flow of the book. The story being told did not flow smoothly and was a little jarring in certain spots. There was one thing in particular that was mentioned once in the book and then not mentioned again until much later and to me it felt like something that should have been talked about way more. Also, when changing characters during chapters it was like it would just jump to the other character with no clear transition, which is what I mean by a little jarring. I would be reading from the point of view of one character and it would feel like there was more to say before changing to another characters point of view.
Overall the story is good and I did enjoy the book. It was just the way the story flowed and the sudden change of character point of view that was a bit off for me.

Talk about starting off right in the middle of the action! There were no slow chapters in this book. The Community tells the story of, you guessed it, a community in the dystopian future after climate change killed off most of the world's population. Nora, our main character, finds herself pregnant in a time where it is illegal to do so. Feeling connected to her unborn child because all of her family was taken from her by climate change disasters, Nora decides to go against the Community's rules and remain pregnant rather than having her pregnancy forcefully terminated. On the quest to save her child Nora learns that the Community is not everything it seems and that it is not as perfect as the senator, Nora's future father-in-law, leads everyone to believe. A great take on climate change, government control, and the rights of the people. If you are a fan of Falling and Uprising by Natalie Cammaratta or The Giver by Lois Lowry then you will most definitely love The Community by Heidi Visser.

The Community was a rigidly controlled society, but not one filled with devastation and rubble, with chaos everywhere. A bit of a slow beginning but the story quickly became a page turner as the curiosity of the characters' motives. Well written with engaging characters and a unique premise.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

This was a great read, really fast paced but at the same time it gave plenty of time to understand what was going on, and to make things better has a well defined ending, i mean, it could go on, there's answers to explore that weren’t explored in this one, so it leaves space for this world to grow.

The characters give you a very well defined space for you to like them or hate them, you’ll know who you will love and who you’ll hate, and that reminds me, a snake could turn even to her own species… you’ll understand that soon enough mwahahah.

I got a free ARC through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A very intense read. I will read this again and again.
Would love to read its sequel. Captures the reader, great plot twists, tragic end but beautiful.

The concept of this book is fantastic, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
The pros:
-Excellent concept. Most of the earth has been rendered inhabitable due to a massive solar flare; a dystopian community appropriately named The Community in which resources are carefully rationed, and citizens are sterilized to control the population; a young woman who is inexplicably pregnant in spite of this.
-The cover art. The iconic reproductive system symbol at the top is pretty, eye-catching, and a little haunting.

The cons:
-There is so much exposition at the beginning of this novel slowing the pace to an uninteresting crawl.
-High-stakes situations don't feel very high, because I'm not invested in any of the characters at the start. I don't know who they are or why I should care about them.

Thankfully, the pace does pick up, and Nora is a great main character. She's a wonderful example of a strong female character that is vulnerable and nonaggressive.

Ultimately, I did enjoy reading this book, and I would purchase it just for the cover alone. I'd recommend this for young adult readers who enjoy dystopian novels like The Hunger Games or Divergent, but are looking for something just a little more mature.

This was a slow burner to start with but as the tension in the plot increased so did the pacing of the book. It was well written with a good, if not somewhat confusing at times, plot and well developed characters. Since the recent pandemic I have started to read more dystopian fiction and this was a good read.

I always enjoy a dystopian novel, so I was excited to read this one! The beginning was a bit of a struggle to get through, but as I settled into the story, it was quite enjoyable! I liked Nora, and I felt like she was a great main character!

I found this book confusing, If everyone has been sterilized, how does the main character become pregnant? And why would society want to sterilize people after a major event that has wiped out most of the population? Even with limited resources, with a limited population, I would think the government would want to encourage reproduction?

When I saw the cover and description, I had to read it. It was touch and go in the beginning but I managed to get through the why am I reading this part. From there it flowed better and left me hoping for another book to continue Nora's journey.

Yes, women played a strong part in this novel but it did take The Community to realize the bigger picture and to look outside the original Community. It would be interesting to see where it goes next.

Thanks to NetGallery, the publisher and the author for the copy in return for my review.

How much control is too much?

The world has ended, but humanity remains. After a solar flare decimated the earth, the survivors gather under the strict regime of The Community so they can cling onto life while they rebuild. Every aspect of life is controlled - from food rations, to fertility, even your social standing is decided through a structured and detailed set of levels.

Nora is level 4, but soon she's going to climb the ladder - she's so close to achieving as perfect a life as possible in a dystopian hellscape. She has a great job in The Community, she's engaged and her wedding is going to be the event that opens up so many doors for her. But now, she's pregnant. And she is most definitely not allowed to be pregnant right now.

Nora knows it's wrong, she knows The Community will never allow this - but she will never be able to escape their shadow until she finds out what's truly hiding the dark.

For fans of the Handmaids Tale, The Hunger Games and The 100, this dystopian nightmare is one that will definitely haunt your mind for a long time after the last page is turned. The world building is rich and hauntingly vivid, making such a different and broken world feel unsettling familiar.

Nora was one of those characters that wouldn't be out of place in an action movie - she's strong and isn't afraid to fight for those she loves, no matter how scared or unsure she is.

If you missed the glaring clue on the cover, this book has a deeply uncomfortable focus on womanhood and femininity - and the terrifying lack of female autonomy and control women experience even today. It finds the most sinister parts of real life, and humanity, and shows us a terrifying turn of events that might just be possible should the wrong things happen at the wrong time. As well as speculating on the truths of classism and environmental issues.