Review | Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky
Veronica Rossi
Under the Never Sky #1
Published January 3, 2012 by Harper Collins
YA science fiction/post-apocalyptic
3 stars

Bite-Sized Review
Under the Never Sky is an exciting post-apocalyptic story that fans of the genre will certainly enjoy. It's definitely worth reading if you're interested.

King-Sized Review
You're thrown into the middle of this book with little introduction. Aria gets thrown out of her enclosed home with startling rapidity and no time for a sense of what goes on in the pod-thingy or why it exists. However, things do eventually become a little clearer as the book goes on, and it's worth working your way through the first few chapters to read the rest of the tale.

Essentially, something went wrong in the atmosphere. It gave rise to dangerous storms known as Aether storms and caused a large portion of humanity to move to domed cities, kept sane by a virtual reality interface called the Realms. Aria was content where she was until her mother went missing. That's the reason she was in the agriculture dome when the fire started, and the reason she was exile. She expected to die right away, killed by cannibals or Outsiders or the air itself. When she ran into an Outsider, she had no choice but to stay with him and hope he could help her find her mother.

The story alternates between Aria's and Perry's perspectives, which gives a good view of both Outsider and Dweller cultures. It's a creative world that could be either Earth in a vastly altered future or another world – which one it is isn't really important. Though not new, the scifi elements were interesting and well done. It's a little confusing at first, but it works itself out so that you know what you need to without info-dumping, which is pleasant.

The characters ended up being good despite a shaky start. Aria managed to be shockingly stupid sometimes, but she grew on me throughout the book. And while Perry started out as kind of selfish and annoying, I got to like him too. The minor characters (read: Roar) were probably my favorite.

Overall, Under the Never Sky is a good read, especially if you like dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. I'll definitely be reading the next book.

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Good

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