I am Number Four meets Hunger Games. Dystopian sci-fi that contains well paced action and a mystery. I am looking forward to the rest of this series.

Not recommended for very young readers (eg under 12's) due to violence and implied sexual violence.

For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. It had great pacing, a unique storyline, and interesting characters. There were only a couple of things that stopped me from giving it 5 stars.

I found the language that Jesper (aka "Boy 23) used to be a little annoying - "squizz" instead of look, "yomp" instead of walk, "squawk" instead of bird, etc... I get that it differentiates him from the regular populace, but it felt a little tacky. It didn't really seem necessary as "The Voice" spoke regular English, so there was no obvious reason for Jesper to speak the way he did.

I also found the information drop at the end to be rather odd. All the details about Jesper that were thrown upon the reader, with very little hinting to it throughout the rest of the book, felt quite jarring. The revealing of information throughout the novel could have been spread out a little better, so there weren't all these details coming to light at the very end.

Other than those couple of things, this was quite a good read. I really liked the character of Carina, as she seemed very authentic in her kindness. I loved that she wasn't a "special snowflake" and was only given the opportunities she received due to her being kind to the one person that no one else would go near.

As far as the actual story goes, I found it to be quite original and interesting. I would have liked a little more detail about the overall setting, but that says more about me as a reader, than the book. In actual fact, the setting was described subtly, and in a way that didn't distract from the plot.

For most of the story, it felt like a stand alone, but the ending was left very open. I'm not sure if there is going to be a sequel, or if that's that. Either way, this was a great book, and I recommend it for people who like dystopias, but are a little tired of the standard tropes.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was a very interesting book first of all it is British, so the vocabulary is different than what I am use to, second you do not learn till the end that there is an alien element to the story. Jasper has grown up in a room, that he has never left, had never seen another human, and is taken care of by "the voice". The Voice gives him tasks to do on a computer, makes sure there are clothes and food for him when he wakes up, but one day The Voice drops him in a forest and tells him to run, he is in danger. This is the beginning of Jasper's adventure, that has him befriending a homeless person, running from New Dawn, and ending up in an orphanage. The Voice tries to help him along the way as does a girl from the orphanage. What he learns at the end of the book, will have you saying, "What?". Then asking how long do I have to wait for the next one.

It started off very mysteriously, which made me want to read it and it had an interesting and intriguing storyline. It was also in 3 different point of views which helped to keep the reader captivated, but the ending and explanation seemed really dumb and out of place. I didn't start reading this book expecting it to be sort of science fiction so the ending seemed very unexpected, but not like a twist, it just seemed out of place and sort of dumb.

I wanted to love this book so bad. It starts off well, with the reader plunged right into the action from the very first line. It moves along at a furious pace, which had me thinking this would be great for reluctant readers and a possibility for a lower secondary class text. But the resolution just left me going meh. Now I am sad.

I received a copy of this book for free through NetGalley

One dark night, Boy 23 is thrown in the back of the van and driven out of My Place - the only home he has ever known. He is abandoned in a forest with a rucksack containing the bare essentials for survival. Before the van drives away, a voice tells him he must run as far as he can. His life depends on it. Boy 23 has never known another human. Boy 23 has never even been outside. So who is he? Why do people want to kill him? And more to the point, who is the voice that wants to save him?

2.5 stars

Oops, I just realised I never reviewed this.

I wanted to like this so much but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

Can I just say, that cover is fantastic! So ominous just like the book. The problem with Boy 23 is that most of the book seems to be made up of filler pages. I really rooted for Boy 23 in all his wildness and innocent glory but I could care less about every other character. Also I was not a fan of the narrative as a whole. It might have just been me but I was confused for a wee while there.

There are some really good reviews out there for this book so if it sounds like your cup of tea, I suggest reading some of those.

This review first appeared on my blog Bart's Bookshelf.

A couple of years ago, I read Jim Carrington’s Drive By, and Boy 23 sounded so different to that one, that I knew I just had to read it. It was obviously meant to be, as just a few days after requesting it on Netgalley, a copy also dropped through my letterbox!

The set up in the blurb, promises a breathless chase; as our main character Jesper aka Boy 23 attempts to evade capture, and try to survive in a world he’s never been part of… however, and there’s no real way of discussing this without spoilers, so look away now, if you want to avoid them… Not that long after being left alone, that chase comes to an abrupt end, as events conspire to means Jesper stays in one place for a good section of the novel.

That is not to say, the story grinds to a halt, it just changes pace for a bit, and so isn’t the mad scramble all the way though I was expecting. (the Chaos Walking comparison is likely the main culprit behind me expectations!) There is plenty going on though, connections to make and information to uncover. It’s here that he meets Carina, a girl who is also staying at the same place he ends up, and who has an interesting story to tell as well.

And then… the accelerator is slammed down and doesn’t let up, until the end of the book. So yes, it was as I thought, a totally different feel to Drive By, and while it wasn’t quite the story I was expecting, it was one I really did enjoy, and was also I felt a fresh take on a YA dystopian world.

My copy of Boy 23 by Jim Carrington was provided the publisher for review purposes.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I think this was one of the very first books that I requested on Netgalley and I can’t even remember why I requested it, it’s not really something that I would go for. However I requested and finally read it and now reviewing :). This is a science-fiction/dystopian Young adult book, it is hard to categorise as it felt like several genres. We follow this boy and he is known as Boy 23 and lives in ‘My Place’ he doesn’t have any human contact and has no idea of the outside world, he communicates with ‘The voice’ who tells him his schedule and is a role model of such.One night Boy 23 is bundled in to the boot of a car and dumped into the woods with a backpack and ‘the voice’ telling him to run as far away as possible. With never being outside before he doesn’t know foe from friend. Someone is out to get him but he needs to let the right people know that he exists before he is captured. This book was OK! It was fast paced with an air of mystery, however it took a long time for the big reveal and I was getting a little bored to be honest. The writing was not the greatest and the use of ‘Squizz’ and ‘yomping’ was way too much and started irritating the hell out of me. The world building was pretty non-existent, we knew that it was set in Germany but we didn’t get much more than that.

I rated this 2.75/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. All views are my own.

I have read quite a lot of dystopian fiction at this point which may be why I didn't find this book overly exciting, a lot of the main plot points are relatively generic for the genre. However, overall it was still an enjoyable read. The beginning section irritated me a little with the language used by Boy 23 combined with the aspect of his unknown origin, but once I got a little further in I got used to it and liked that we were then given more world building to situate the story within.

I actually quite liked ending and Boy 23's full origin story, it all linked up quite well. Nothing to blow my mind, but an enjoyable read over this weekend.