Experience Reigns Of Utopia: War Of EvolutionI Showcased By Elsie Swain Exhibited In Leaflet

Huge thank you to Elsie Swain for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for a review!

TW: Graphic violence, death, mentions of torture, anxiety.


"The existence of harmony could only exist in Utopia, and a Utopian society could only be created by eliminating humans, "

I would like to preface by saying that I am a huge fan of Elsie's writing style, This is the second book of hers that I've read, and I am always in awe of the maturity in her writing, Sure, it can be heavy for some people, but I enjoy the depth and the thoughtprovoking prose that never fails to get me annotating, Some of the best quotes that I've ever read have come from her works her ability to tie the entire story back to the title is something I will never tire of.
And when I found out that Elsie wrote this literary masterpiece inDAYS Calling this an impressive feat is an understatement,

Reigns of Utopia has everything that I love a dystopian world where anthromorphs are at war with bianthromorphs, an exploration of gender and sexuality, smashing archaic laws, and the downfall of a corrupt system.
Power play and grey morality are also some of my favourite things to read about, and this book did it so well,

Let me start with my favourite part of the book, the main characters, Zella Rune is the fierce bisexual protagonist, as strong and steady as a mountain, always levelheaded and ready to finish things as efficiently as possible, She is a transgender halfSiamese woman who knows what she wants and will do anything to get it except in the love life department, in which she plays an infuriating yet entertaining game of denial, and she is the one that everyone relies on to make sure nothing goes sideways.
I thought that I would love her the most, until Castiel Sylvain showed up,

Castiel, the Brazilian demisexual bianthromorph who is the only one who can keep up with Zella, He is the quintessential broody badboy, but somewhere along the lines, he turns into the group's anchor, Zella and Castiel are the dream team, and their banter only made things better, Castiel is often the voice of reason, giving logical opinions to both counter and fuel Zella's fire, He is so protective of the evertough Zella, which was a light amidst the dark themes of this book, Likewise, Zella's hardened armour cracks around Castiel, and she surprises herself with the lengths she would go for him, Their tension and character development was undeniably one of the best parts of the book for me,

We also have the fun supporting characters like Charm, the Allyson twins and Maia, who each had their own significant contribution to the book, I specifically love how Caledon's friendship with Zella turned into something stronger Caledon took on an older brother role, and watching the indomitable Zella have someone to support her and give her advice made my heart very happy.
It goes to show that no matter how strong a person is, they are not indestructible,

The worldbuilding did get a bit heavy at times, but once I got through the initial comprehension phase, everything fell into place so well, I love how the epic world was designed and how the ruthless power system was set up, The fight scenes were also visceral, emotive, and I learnt something knew about each character through each fight, The tone of the book felt very nostalgic, and I found myself wishing I could watch this as a movie,

Though I will not spoil anything, I will say, . . Elsie, I will not forgive you for that ending,

I leave you with one of the many intriguing quotes from this book:

"That beanstalk never feels full, "

No, I'm kidding, There is some humour in this book, in case you were wondering otherwise, THIS is the actual quote I want to share,

"Don't we all keep running away from life and live in fear until we stop trying so hard to take the easy way out"

/stars! Reigns of Utopia teaches you to find solace even when the world around seems to crumble.
Its placed within the borders of the dystopian UNECA and follows Zella and her friends in their quest to achieve freedom, The author carefully constructed the entire plot to make sure that at no point do you feel you know whats going to unfold,

The general premise is that the world faces turmoil after a new species, Homo Anthromorphisis, challenges humanity for the top spot on the food chain, With humanity rapidly advancing and shunning Anthromorphs, who are humans with the genes of various animals fused with their DNA, Zella finds herself on earths most dilapidated area Europe.


Through careful dialogue and extensive worldbuilding, Swain guides you perfectly as you take the plunge into this world of, Zella is an independent, strong character with unparalleled ambition and just enough flaws to remind you shes human, She plays the roles forced upon her with the skill of an AList actor but can make sure that she gets what she wants and undermine her controllers with a careful veil and extreme precision.
On the other hand, Castiel perfectly compliments her while holding his own, His story is definitely one that will move you, and I dont want to say more out of fear of spoiling the read,

All in all, the book leaves you itching for the next instalment in the series and with your eyes opened to the nuances in the racism and discrimination you see in everyday society.
A mustread, I would highly recommend it! Change is the constant need,

The book is set in future where the society is divided into humans and a new genre which is the result of forced genetic experiments on human.
The genre was created in hope to eradicate the mere weakness of human being unexpectedly turns out to be opposite to its aim, The tension starts to grow as the war of supremacy between both the genres begins,
There are exceptionals too and our protagonist belongs to the same, Zella knows herself and what power she holds within herself yet she decides to play with the tune of the time, The book has the blend of reality with scifi genre, the background of the plot is quite rich and the author has definitely used the imagination to the fullest which indeed made this book a treat to read.

There are a variety of character involved in the book and each has been given sufficient scope to contribute to the plot, Each bears their own unique characteristics and it shines through out the book, ADGIFTED I was kindly sent a copy of this title by the author in exchange for an honest review,

THE POSITIVES
Fantastic diversity and rep: trans and biracial MC, bisexual and demisexual rep, Latin MC,
Inventive worldbuilding and dystopian setting
Anthromorphs!
Slowburn romance
Wellwritten action scenes high stakes and fastpaced
Some instances of beautiful prose and thoughtful musings
Interesting scientific knowledge as background

THE NEGATIVES
Complicated and unclear at times some sentences didn't make sense and the syntax was wrong
Needed clearer breaks in the text as it was difficult to follow changing perspectives

Overall, this ambitious book was full of potential but was hampered by a lack of editing and proofreading.
Thanks to Pridebooktours and Elsie Swain for making this book available to me,

A couple things I really enjoyed

World building SciFi: you could tell that a lot of thought was put into situations and the concept of anthromorphs I dare say a lot of research.
Research is something that a lot of Science Fiction tend to lack but this book did it quite well, In a dystopian world similar to that of, where power, influence and social status puts you in favourable position in natural selection,

Character development: woah! From the main character Rune to Castiel to Chancellor Cullians, they were all well structured and their continued growth through out the book was just amazing.


The CULT, the convention statements, the documents and convention resolutions were so well thought out, The founding fathers or members sounded so clever and you could feel the presence of the past hanging over the whole book, No one and no where is safe, More interesting in this regard is how well the author blends facts with fiction

Favourite quote ", . . we are blindfolding ourselves from the illusion that we are the predators of preset judgement that are destroying Homo Sapiens"

Reigns of Utopia has been a wild ride from beginning to end.
I dont think Ive read anything like it, but it is definitely reminiscent of some of my fave SciFi books and felt as if Disneys Zootopia, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, and Renegades by Marissa Meyer had a baby.


In this world, humans have been spliced with animal DNA, They are the Anthromorphs. All at once, theyre both here to save humans and also at war, The MC, Zella Rune was a Bianthromorph, Shes been combined with more than one animals DNA and is such a strong character that I loved reading about,

I looooooooved the world building in ROU!! I havent read a book quite like this one, I love picking up Indie books and being completely surprised by how great they are,

Thank You to Elsie Swain for sending me a copy of the book in return for my honest review, The best penned down dystopian fiction novel for me till now, The way every plot has been explained makes us more curious then ever, The trial of identity has its own story and makes me go wrong everytime when i think something will happen, "I dont think people change, They can either modify themselves to recognize their truth or get tired of lying and shed the facade to be their true selves, When we accept that, thats when people dont have to try to hide from each other but rather try harder to not keep running away"

The year is.
A lot of testing has been done on humans in hopes of eradicating all 'weaknesses', which led to the creation of anthromorphs, But this creation gave the world an unwelcome gift of imbalance, creating a fight for power and dominance, The world is now at the verge of crumbling, facing a strong war between humans and anthromorphs,

This is the setting we find ourselves in when we read 'Reigns of Utopia', I've never really read a scifi book before, but trust me when I tell you, I ABSOLUTELY DEVOURED this one! I didn't know what to expect tbh, but this book was wayy beyond whatever I thought it would be!

"Ignorance is bliss whilst cowardice is easier to cope with"

Zella Rune, our protagonist, is a very strong character.
I loved all the characters but I loved her the most for her strength, The relationship between Zella and Castiel, one formed on trust and respect, was beautiful to read

I felt like the book drew parellels to the current world.
The domination of a unipower, the wars and power struggles, the unacceptence of who one is and othering, the looking down upon one class for reasons unacceptable, the bigotry, the hurt one feels because of one isn't accepted to the society for injust reasons we can see this all in our society and our world's current situations.
This book unapologetically reveals the ugliness of our realities blended with eloquent writing and a dystopian scifi world,

This book also shows how words hurt, actions hurt, and how important it is for us to atleast try to understand our fellow human beings, And kudos to the author for adding a Demisexual character, I have read books with heterosexual, homosexual and even asexual MCs, but this is the first time I'm reading a book with a demisexual MC, and I appreciate the author for always trying to give more representation in her books!

And the part I loved the most THE ENDING! It was so good, it left me in awe for a long time! I was so sure I was going to have my heart broken I can NOT wait for the sequel!!

Bottom Line : Go

pick this underrated gem up! A total/star read for me! : I havent read a lot of scifi, but this one I can tell from the first page that Im going to love it.
This is such a well written book with great world building and character development, I can see that the author did a lot of research in writing this book with unique concept, There are supernatural power, witty banter, and moral values are taught through this book, Also its fast paced and I love the maps included, Overall I highly recommend this one MY RATING,/STARS

Thank you to the author for sending me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.


I dont read scifi often, but this was an interesting and engaging story that made you keep wanting to read on, to know what was going to happen next.
The premise was really interesting, and I enjoyed getting immersed in this new world,

Another thing I really loved was the representation in the book, We had a trans bisexual main character and a demisexual love interest, Besides this it also had biracial and Latin main characters, Most of the characters were really interesting to read about, and I loved to see how they all developed, It was great to learn more about each of the characters backgrounds, and how they became who they were,

Sometimes I had trouble distinguishing between who some of the characters were, Because of this it could also be a bit confusing at times when the book suddenly changed POV to a new character,

If you think the book sounds interesting, Id definitely recommend checking it out, .