Review: Suspense

Spencer Nye can’t control the rage bubbling under her skin over the world around her. The trouble is, by the year 2102, the world has solved most of its great problems. Without hunger, war, greed, or even money, people obsess over the glamour of the Culture Industry and its mega-celebrity Idols, who vie for followers over the social networks of Connect. 

-Goodreads

Stats:

• Format: ebook

• Publisher: CreateSpace

• Release Date: September 3, 2011

• File Size: 375 KB

Favorite Quotes:

“I’ve never known anyone else who did things like this, had this restless urge to create problems and strife that never went away. This was why I was a mess.”

“But you are pretty in a completely different way. If I didn’t know you and saw you sitting alone, you’re someone I would want to walk up to and strike up a conversation with, because you’re graceful and intriguing enough to make people feel comfortable around you.”

“Anyone can have grand ideas about what they want the world to be, but the real genius is knowing how to get there from where we are now.”

“When you’ve got the whole world looking at you, they’ll make you out to be whatever they want, when really none of us are any different.”

“I smiled as I reached back, knowing that the time had come. To leap without looking, to trust your gut and do what must be done in the face of uncertainty, to take the hard road because it will only make you stronger, and to fight for those who will never thank you, that was what I believed in.”

Review:

Suspense is the first book in the Spencer Nye Trilogy by Jason Letts.  It is set in the future where people follow (or even worship) celebrities known as “Idols.”  Idols come and go according to their popularity and wars break out between their followers.  It is a believable scenario when you look at how obsessed our culture is with celebrities.  I found the Idols to be a really interesting part of the story.  

The main character, Spencer, is a strong female who is constantly striving to make life meaningful and is tired of the average day-to-day.  Spencer follows the Idol Cleary Mintz, an actor.  She discovers that followers of another Idol are planning on killing Cleary and she is trying to warn him.  There are a lot of action scenes and they were described pretty well.  

Spencer’s two friends in the book are Patch and Jetta.  Patch is a guy who is great with technology and is an integral part of Spencer working towards helping Cleary.  Jetta is part-cyborg (humans can have certain body parts replaced with mechanical ones; remember, it’s the future) and is a true ally; she wouldn’t think twice about putting herself in danger to save either Spencer or Patch.  Although I liked Spencer and Jetta’s friendship, it gets a little complicated between them and made things kind of weird (you’ll know what I mean when you read the book!).  

I was definitely into the plot and it had me wanting to know what was going to happen.  I have to admit that this started to fade as the book neared the end.  The story takes a turn that I wasn’t expecting and I’m not sure if I’ll like it.  Spencer’s likability also started to fall kind of flat.  She wants to do well by others but also always wants to be involved in a fight.  Spencer is starting to seem like the type of person who enjoys being miserable and thrives on it.

Despite the end of the book not being as interesting as the rest, I am curious about how the next two books will be.  Suspense had some great new ideas and definitely keeps you guessing!