Book Review: Captive by Aimee Carter

Book Review: Captive by Aimee CarterCaptive by Aimée Carter
Series: The Blackcoat Rebellion #2
Published by HarlequinTeen
Published on November 25th 2014
Genres: Dystopian, Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, New Adult, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 286
Format: Paperback
Source: HarlequinTeen Australia
Add to Goodreads
Buy from Amazon | Buy from The Book Depository |Publisher page
3 Stars

The truth can set her free...

For the past two months, Kitty Doe's life has been a lie. Forced to impersonate Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, in a hostile meritocracy on the verge of revolution, Kitty sees her frustration grow as her trust in her fake fiancé cracks, her real boyfriend is forbidden and the Blackcoat rebels she is secretly supporting keep her in the dark more than ever.

But in the midst of discovering that her role in the Hart family may not be as coincidental as she thought, she's accused of treason and is forced to face her greatest fear: Elsewhere. A prison where no one can escape.

As one shocking revelation leads to the next, Kitty learns the hard way that she can trust no one, not even the people she thought were on her side. With her back against the wall, Kitty wants to believe she'll do whatever it takes to support the rebellion she believes in—but is she prepared to pay the ultimate price?

I received a copy of this book from HarlequinTeen Australia in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Spoilers for Book 1: Pawn

SUMMARY

Kitty Doe decided to continue her disguise as Lila Hart, niece to the Prime Minister of the dystpian United States of America. That is, until she was caught snooping and promptly sent Elsewhere – the nightmare otherworld where un-citizens and the elderly are sent. Kitty discovers Elsewhere is more than it appears, and also holds a numbers of secrets she unravels one by one to uncover a bigger conspiracy than the one that put her there in the first place.

WORLDBUILDING

In the first book, Pawn, we had a brief encounter with Elsewhere when Daxton hunted an innocent woman and shot her like a wild animal. The truth is so much worse than that. There’s some truly awful things that happen in Elsewhere, and with everyone out for themselves you can’t trust anyone. I did have a bit of a struggle trying to figure out the very complicated relationships some of the Blackcoats had with others in Elsewhere, but in the end I gave up. Carter is very adept at using red herrings to draw one’s attention elsewhere. Upon re-reading, I know I’ll pick up on her clues better.

CHARACTER

Kitty was really quite stupid in this book, and a lot of characters don’t hesitate to call her so. She constantly makes decisions that are in direct contradiction to what she’s been told, and all we’ve got to go on that is her complete stubbornness. She’s stupid with who she decides to trust – nearly on a whim – and instead of valuing her relationship with her supposed boyfriend Benjy, she’d rather do the thing that means not spending more time with him and also risking her life. It’s really romantic, how she doesn’t seem to want to spend any time with him. But maybe I’m just being cynical.

No, the really, really annoying thing about Kitty in Captive is that she is full of hot air. Kitty constantly thinks, swears, promises to murder other characters – in cold blood, in passion, plans whether to shoot them, knife them, or throw them down the stairs and plead innocence… the motif varies but is fairly consistent throughout the novel. Kitty constantly thinks murderous thoughts, but when given the chance, she once again fumbles and fails. It happened in Pawn as well. Kitty’s bravado really annoys me – she sounds really bloodthirsty, but she can’t follow through. She’s not half as tough as most of the other characters in the novel.

RELATIONSHIPS

Kitty’s relationships are spread out in this novel, and I never really got the feeling that any of them were particularly strong. The whole story takes place over a very short time frame, so it’s much harder to develop relationships. The one I quite liked turned out to be a red herring, so I was saddened by that. The characters I thought were enemies turned out not to be so much – such is the nature of Elsewhere. I was glad to find there was still no love triangle, but at least one aspect of why a certain romantic relationship didn’t develop was explained as well.

OVERALL

I thought Captive was going to be Pawn 2.0, but it was really so much more than that. Kitty’s life in Elsewhere is definitely worth the read if you’re already into the series, and if you’re a fan of or have read Carter in the past and want to see how she’s develop into a master storyteller, you’d do well to read this as well. I had trouble keeping my interest in about the first 100 or so pages, but the next two thirds were engaging despite Kitty’s frustrating motivations.

Nemo
Nemo

About Nemo

A lover of kittens and all things sparkly, Nemo has a degree in English Literature and specialises in reviewing contemporary, paranormal, mystery/thriller, historical, sci-fi and fantasy Young Adult fiction. She is especially drawn to novels about princesses, strong female friendships, magical powers, and assassins.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,835 other subscribers