''Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens. After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he's secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind. The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park ...and discovers truths they could never have imagined.''
I am a massive fan of YA Dystopian novels, (aren't we all?!), so of course I was intrigued and excited by the chance to read 'The Young World by Oscar-nominated writer and director Chris Weitz
Quick read of the blurb and you're thinking, "ugh here we go, same old same old", but regardless I remained hopeful that this book would offer something new to the world of YA Dystopia. Unfortunately... It didn't.
Predictable, clichéd and overdone were the first words that came to mind.
It's written from two perspectives, Jefferson and Donna. Jefferson was actually an interesting character and I enjoyed reading about their journey from his perspective. He's a reluctant leader, but a leader nonetheless. Jefferson is decent guy and fairly intelligent which made him interesting as a character. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Donna. Gosh I hated that girl, every time it changed to her perspective I'd groan and dread it. She was so so annoying, every sentence she uttered was packed with 'like' and 'um', like ''um girlfriend that is so annoying.''
She was just everything I hate in a character and I felt no connection to her. If she'd been killed off midway through the book I genuinely wouldn't have cared, just been relieved to be free of her annoying dialogue. She had her moments though, occasionally, being funny or relatable, and I can see what the author was trying to accomplish with this character, but he did not succeed.
The other characters were marginally better, Peter was entertaining but a total stereotype. BrainBox was your typical, well, brainbox, and I actually really liked his character, but one of my favourite characters was SeeThrough, she was tough and brilliant and should've been the MC with Jefferson. If I could change this book I would have made it alternate between Jefferson and SeeThrough and built them up as friends. Now that would have majorly improved this book.
As for the world-building and plot line, it was predictable and unoriginal. I didn't care about what happened to any of them. Also you'd think in a world that suddenly had all the adults and young children wiped out by some disease, the teenagers left would have some sort of emotion about that? Okay, two years had gone by, but seriously? The loss of iPhones and T.V was mourned more than family members. Donna missing her younger brother was the only time anyone seemed to care, genuinely, the only time. What the?
In clothing, the Young World was okay, but really nothing new. If you're fancying a simple dystopian read, then by all means, go for it, but if you're after something more challenging and original you might want to steer clear.