• Author: Chris Panatier
• Series: Standalone
• No. of pages: 344
• Dates read: 26.08.20 – 31.08.20
• Star Rating: 3
• ARC published by Angry Robot

Thank you Netgalley and Angry Robot for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Plot: In a near future where citizens are subject to the mandatory blood draw, government phlebotomist Willa Wallace witnesses an event that makes her question her whole world. To recover from a cataclysmic war, the Harvest was created to pass blood to those affected by radiation. But this charitable act has led to a society segregated entirely by blood type. Patriot thanks and rewards your generous gift based on the compatibility of your donation, meaning that whoever can give to the most, gets the most back. While working as a reaper for the draw, Willa chances upon an idea to resurrect an obsolete collection technique that could rebalance the city. But in her quest to put this in motion, she instead uncovers a secret that threatens her entire foundations…

This book was really enjoyable. Panatier chucks you in the deep end straight away which I love! Only a couple of pages in the ball is already rolling, the mystery has already begun! There isn’t really any time taken to explain the character or the world it’s straight into the plot and then you learn more about the character and plot as you go on. And I loved it this way, I feel that it worked.

I felt the world-building was pretty good. Panatier only really covers a small part of the world that is important to the story and I felt that it was set-up very well. I had a good sense of what the setting of the novel was, how the world got to where it was and how it works the way it does.

The main character Willa was by far my favourite part of the story. A strong older woman who would do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves! I really enjoyed her character. In fact, this book was full of strong female characters of varying skill which was great to see!

The plot itself was really good and took me by surprise. I was going into this expecting a straight-up dystopian novel but Panatier was blurring the lines a bit when it came to the genre of this book.

One thing that stopped this book becoming a 4 star was due to the fact that you find out a lot of big information early on in the novel and it affected the pacing of the story. I started to lose momentum in this book around the 50/60% mark as you went quite sometime before new information started unfolding and my interest started to wane.

The next book I will be reviewing is The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. I loved the Netflix adaptation of this book so let’s see if I enjoy the book!