Retrieve Stray (Stray, #1) Author Monica Hesse Presented As File

most productive features writer at the Washington Post's Style section and I should know! somehow found time to also write this absorbing, sleek novel about a future where the answer to a surfeit of neglected/abused/abandoned children is to hook them up to a virtualreality "perfect childhood" represented by one boy's life.
Then some of them escape before their cutoff date, It's a great, suspenseful read, but also heartbreaking in parts, Stray definitely didnt turn into the book I expected, despite the storyline its so much more character driven then action based.
It sounds strange but reading Stray was incredibly relaxing, I got to know Lona on a much deeper level than most characters in this genre,

What I will say is that I did not get Fenn at all, Lona and Genevieve are fascinating, intelligent and brave some of my favourite female characters in ages and its all about Fenn I could not see it at all but in the end I didnt have to like him to love Lonas story.


Stray is an intriguing story, it twists and turns and youre never quite sure how itll come together in the end.
I really enjoyed how Monica Hesse built on things, Talia for example and what became of Julian,

Monica Hesses debut is complex, intelligent and very well done, Ill certainly be keeping an eye out for future releases, Didn't capture my interest enough to finish it, The idea of Path is to provide a better life for children who would otherwise end up in foster care, by providing them with the perfect childhood.
In order to do this the Pathers have no previous memories, no identity that isnt Path, even their names are a way of categorising the children.
From that we can tell Lona was born Decemberth and was designated to SectorQuadrant, it does also make pronouncing some of the names tricky to pronounce, Ilyf and Czin for example.
Even with the lack of background information I felt like I got to know Lona better than any other lead character in any book Ive read for a while.
Maybe because were there while Lona discovers herself, On the subject of characters, I loved Talia, a Path Staff member, and the outside Path perspective she gave to the book, she started off as a small character, but as things developed she became a key part in the plot.


In the one hour offPath Lona becomes friends with Fenn, and when he leaves for Eighteens she really misses him, and starts to realise that she has an offPath identity, and that Julian the young boy whos life they all live virtually is not all there is in life.
When Fenn comes back for her, the two of them Stray from path with a few other friends, and it leads to a series of complex developments and twists that left me wondering where and how the book would come to an end.


I found I could picture Path existing if technology was good enough, and I was intrigued by how outsiders reacted to Path, with pity and even envy.
Monica Hesse did a fantastic job of thinking of even the smallest details, like how difficult dealing with the busy places and contact with people would be for the Pathers, and how outsiders are happy to donate money to Path, but wouldnt take any of the children in themselves adding to the overall very realist and intriguing idea of Path.
It was great to also see how the Path had treated Julian, with thousands of children growing up on his memories fromyears ago, and people treating him like a minor celebrity.


Overall I found this to be a fantastic debut and I cant wait for more of Monicas work in the future, so youd better keep writing Miss Hesse! The twists and shocks kept me up late at night finishing it, and I thoroughly recommend this book, as a different twist in the dystopian genre.
And even though I think the book has finished in a perfect place, I almost want a sequel just to find out more about the lives of Fenn and Lona and the other Pathers before they had their memories wiped and their families left them behind.
What a strong book! A wonderful cast of characters in a believable semidystopian world, Reminded me of Never Let Me Go but with slightly less heartbreak and a more hopeful ending, So good, I highly recommend it, The first third of this book was very enjoyable because it was intriguing, I had high hopes.

Then it started falling apart in confusing lurches, None of the characters felt real enough for me, There were too many of them, and the reader is shown only brief glimpses through a perspective so close it almost felt like first person PoV.
Lona herself didn't feel real, Too normal and mature in comparison to the rest in some scenes, flat and artificial in others,

The romance part of the story disappointed me, Lona's relationship with Finn felt forced, because I just couldn't see Finn as an actual person there was so little of him in the book.


The ending was the worst, It wasn't a cliffhanger, but the story ended abruptly without providing any resolutions, It might have been left for the second part, but I have no desire to read it now, not after the crumpled

series of coincidences and miracles this book ended in, conveniently eliminating all of the characters who stood in Lona's way without her direct involvement.


Good idea though, and the writing style was nice, The characters as a result of their upbringing were very flat, there wasn't enough development of Lona and Fenn's relationship despite them knowing each other forever.
I also didn't feel that there was enough history on why the Path was created, I loved this.

The world building was excellent and beautifully detailed, I thought the reasoning behind the Path programme was chillingly plausible, it disturbed me a little that I could understand the logic behind it.


I really liked the romance too most unusual for me, normally I can take it or leave it, but I actually liked the burgeoning romance.


What I really enjoyed though was that, for a group of children who essentially had the exact same upbringing, all the Pathers were different even though they had similarities, with their own little personality quirks.


It's a brilliant read and one I'd definitely recommend,

For a more detailed review sitelinkcheck out my blog, Ah. Reread made it even more amazing,
sitelinkwww. booksandwritersjnr. wordpress. com/ : Lona Sixteen Always is not herself quite literally, She lives her life virtually through the experiences of Julian, a boy who was chosen as a role model for the Pathers of Quadranttroubled children who have been 'rescued' by the government and put 'onPath'.
But one day Lona finds she can think for herself, And on top of that, the face of a familiar boy appears on her screen Fenn, who she thought had moved on to a different stage of the Path last year.
But he didn't. Fenn and other rebels like him have strayed from the Path, and now Lona must stray too, But life offPath is strange and difficult, and Lona uncovers a secret that will threaten all their lives.
Can there really be life after the Path,