In a freezing world, where everyone knows the day they will die, three teens break all odds. Franny Bluecastle, a tough city teen, dreams of dying in opulence, to see wealth she’s never known. Like the entire world, she believes it’s impossible to dodge a deathday. Until the day she does.
I'm going to be very blunt with you all here, but this was not one of the books I was most looking forward to reading. The title and cover were interesting, but but I wasn't so sure about the plot description provided by NetGalley. So while, I was happy to have the opportunity, I didn't go into the book with high expectations. But, goodness gracious, was I wrong! This book hooked me in from the start and refused to let me go.
The world that Krista and Becca Ritchie created in The Raging One is stunningly unique. While there are small connections to our world, it's a mostly unfamiliar world that we're introduced to. The people all know their deathday as soon as they're born and are broken into three classes based on their deathday, Babes, Fast-Trackers and Influentials. Your class decides your education, career and how you should be treated by others in the world. The world really shines a light on our own more-subtle class system and the way we treat labor-intensive workers today.
The three main characters of the book, Franny, Court and Mykal alternate perspectives in this book. They each have their own unique and engaging voice and interesting personal development they must go through as the story progresses. There is a definitely romantic chemistry between some of the characters that really peaked my interest and was part of the reason I felt so engrossed in this story. I won't give away any spoilers, but just be aware that the relationship between these characters is a large and import part of the plot line.
While the world and the characters of The Raging Ones had me completely hooked into this book, I did struggle with the plot. It had a great concept, but there are so many parts of the story that it takes a long time for the authors to set it up. The plot felt fairly slow-moving, especially at the beginning. It was still an interesting plot, but I mostly read on because of the unique world and engaging characters.
The Raging Ones is the first book in the Ritchie Duo's The Raging Ones series. The Young Adult Science-Fiction book is an amazing start to the series, with a truly special world and hooking characters with tantalizing chemistry. For me, the plot was a bit slower than I would have preferred, but I was still happy to read along for the world and characters alone. I'm really looking forward to the next book in this series!