Resistant

The story starts with The Community, created to protect healthy people from the virus. Caused by antibiotic resistance, the virus is an incurable infections. Cat, while taking care of her ailing mother, is part of a group of people expected to find the miracle cure.

Everything changes when her best friend, Abel, shows her that things might not be what they seem. There are survivors.

Then we get to see Wren, a survivor outside of the walls. A small group of survivors just trying to make it everyday.

Everything changes when her mother is taken.

I immediately became entranced in this book, I could hardly put it down.

*This eARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the story, the pace and the twists of this novel! Feels especially relevant in our Covid-19 world too.
Cat and Wren. Two headstrong girls both yearning for more and prepared to run headlong into the action with little thought or planning. Mysterious adults with secrets about the past. Perfect YA material so far!
If you are a fan of Divergent and Unwind you will enjoy this very much.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, this is my honest review.

Solid sci-fi somewhat relevant to the times we live-in. It has all the elements of a good story -- well written characters, engaging plot, good writing, surprises, etc. This will probably appeal to a lot of sci-fi fans, not just YA. Recommended.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

If you've been following me, you've noticed that I've been reading a lot of lighter material lately to escape from reality and the ugliness of this world. So, what part of my brain thought it was a good idea to request this book, clearly very close to our current reality, on Netgalley? Good question! I assume it's the science nerd in me, quite curious to see what the author would do with an issue like this and where this story would go.

At first this story seems a little slow. We're introduced to the main characters in this story and through very lengthy chapters we're also introduced to this world. We get a clear impression of the protected people living inside the dome and we also get a very clear view of the world outside the safe walls surrounding the town. And most of it is quite ugly, to be honest. If this is the future of our world, I'm not that excited anymore to be there for it to happen.

However, once we are familiar with everyone and everything and once characters from different worlds start to meet each other, each holding a pieces of the puzzle, it gets more and more interesting. The last quarter of the book was an exciting sequence of release after release and interesting discovery after interesting discovery. Once all the pieces of the puzzle clicked an exciting, intriguing and also slightly scary scenario unfolded. And now I really long for more!

I also long for more because of these characters. Due to the heavy circumstances we really got to know all of these people quite well. And not all of it was pretty. And not all of it was kind. They made hard choices, they made violent choices, they made painful choices. And yet, yet it was hard to blame them for it. Especially because their emotions were described quite vividly and therefore we could understand quite well WHY they did what they did.

I hope there will be a sequel, because this story totally deserves one.

Many thanks to Erika Modrak and Black Rose Writing for an advanced readers copy of this book.

I always find myself pleasantly surprised by the books I receive from Black Rose and this one was no exception. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

After a slower start, you are very quickly grabbed by not only the storyline but the well developed and liable characters. It was definitely hard to put this one down! So prepare to lose an hour or two of sleep. Erika wasn't an author who was on my radar before now but she is definitely one i will start following. Her skill with storytelling and quirky humour is definitely something i clicked really well with.

Geared to a YA audience, but without the usual troupes.

If you’re craving the world of young adult dystopias, then Resistant will sweep you into a ravaged near future where a pandemic virus has wiped out much of humanity and four resilient idealistic teens have to rise up in order to set things right.

Two teens, Cat and Abel, have grown up in the walled, domed, quarantined, and heavily guarded enclave of The Community. They spend their days focused on school and research to discover a working cure. Cat’s beloved Mom is slowly dying from some vague illness, not the virus, that’s sweeping through the community with deadly aftermath. Cat’s father is the formidable, intimidating, cold founding Scientist leading both The Community and its scientific efforts. Abel is a refugee orphan taken in at The Community’s founding, and on to something being terribly wrong in The Community. He’s searching for a possible way to escape and wants to enlist his best friend Cat alongside him.

Meanwhile, in a forest “camp” comprised of long abandoned homes on the outside, a group of healthy survivors fend for a precarious survival. Part of this depends on secretly picking up key items such as fuel delivered at a bridge pick-up adjacent to The Community. Wren, a rebellious teen is the daughter of the leader of the outcasts, a doctor who keeps her own closely held secrets. Ryder, an orphan, adores her and holds out the allure of trips outside the camp on his motorcycle. In a bridge pick-up of supplies, things turn dangerous, shots get fired, and Wren barely escapes with her life.

What follows is adventure, life-threatening dangers, teaming up to overcome seemingly unsurmountable hurdles, and a quest for the truth. True to the best of dystopian tales, teens not fully indoctrinated into their society’s ideology become painfully aware of the deep fault lines in their parents’ generation decisions. They get thrust into heroism as they spring into action to actualize a better future. What follows involves overcoming self-doubt, working towards ever increasing clarity as to what’s going on, finding their own moral centers, defending against danger from all sides, and rooting out of tyranny.

Best of all, Book 2 is coming!

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

I was hesitant to request this book simply because of the world we are living in right now, and the very close issues this book deals with. However, I extremely enjoyed it!

The world was different. Firstly, The Community, is a safe haven inside a dome where the residents are protected from the outside. The outside of the dome is, quite frankly, a scary place to be.

The characters drew me in straight away: Cat, Abel, Wren and Ryder. Characters that should not be able to contact each other, but have found a way. However, they don’t realise the commotion they have caused, and they soon realise that the rules of the camp are there for a reason, and the consequences are more severe than they thought.

This was such a good read, and I hope for a sequel. If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, then you will love this one.

A massive thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy to review!

Resistant was everything I've come to expect and love in a YA post apocalyptic / dystopian novel. We have a 'Community' of chosen ( read wealthy enough to buy a place) healthy individuals who are living a relatively normal life free from the deadly virus that wiped out thousands. On the outside of their walls are the survivors, people who survived the virus but couldn't get a place in the community. Inside we have Cat, the head honcho's daughter, who spends every day with a team of other scientists trying to work out a cure but discovers some secrets that show her things might not be what they seem in her protected community. Outside we have Wren, a fiercely independant and curious young girl who is desperate to find her Mother who has been kidnapped and possibly taken to the Community. So yep.... not one chosen one but TWO! Double the fun!
This was such an easy, enjoyable read. There was the usual angsty teenage relationships, both girls were hot and didn't know it, their best friends were boys who secretly loved them..... so basically.... all the cheese! But I didn't care. I loved it!! I loved the characters, I loved the plot, I loved the twists, I loved the relationships, I loved the ravaged world setting, I loved the danger... Have I mentioned that I loved it? It was exactly what I needed and wanted. Erika, if you're reading this, please can we have another one? Soon? Pretty please?