Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodreadsTitle: Pawn
Author: Aimee Carter
Publication Date: November 26, 2013
My Pre-Reading
Synopsis: YOU CAN BE A VII. IF YOU GIVE UP EVERYTHING.
For Kitty Doe, it seems like an easy choice. She can either spend her life as a III in misery, looked down upon by the higher ranks and forced to leave the people she loves, or she can become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country.
If she says yes, Kitty will be Masked—surgically transformed into Lila Hart, the Prime Minister's niece, who died under mysterious circumstances. As a member of the Hart family, she will be famous. She will be adored. And for the first time, she will matter.
There's only one catch. She must also stop the rebellion that Lila secretly fostered, the same one that got her killed …and one Kitty believes in. Faced with threats, conspiracies and a life that's not her own, she must decide which path to choose—and learn how to become more than a pawn in a twisted game she's only beginning to understand.
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Review: I finished this book a few days ago and am still having trouble trying to find the words to explain how much I loved it. For a YA dystopia, there's definitely something new and unique about it, even though it has a similar feel to more well known dystopian books like the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield, The Hunger Games and Divergent. I think a few parts might have been a little bit slow, but it still didn't detract from how much I enjoyed the book as a whole.
Going into this book, I had this underlying feeling that I was NOT going to like Kitty. She's trying to play two sides of a rebellion, she's giving up everything so that she's not a III, and she's doing it to become a part of a family whose decisions in running the country she disagrees with? She sounds pretty shallow to me. But all of those preconceived ideas I had about her were totally wrong. She wants to be more than a III so she can matter, and so she can lead a life that will allow her to be with the people she loves. She plays both sides so she can stay alive. She might have been given a III, but she's smart and cunning and a quick learner. Kitty has so much to give, and she's actually a really well written heroine.
Many of the minor characters are also extremely well written. All of them have secrets that will destroy them if they ever come out, and once they're revealed it gives quite a bit more depth to the characters. I think my favorite character was probably Knox. He's got as many secrets as the rest of the Harts,if not more, but he's still charming and likable and trustworthy. I hope we get to see more of him in the future! Benjy really annoys me, and I think he was one of my least favorite characters. He seems so unnecessary and needy and willing to go along with what Kitty does or wants. I hope he gets better in later books.
The plot moves along pretty quickly for the most part, although a few parts are hard to get through just because of their content; the chapters about The Auction and Elsewhere are the ones that stick out the most in my mind. I saw a couple of the reveals coming, but some of the bigger ones were pretty well hidden, which I very much appreciated. I found myself never wanting to put this book down, and only did so because I needed to do things like eat and sleep and all of those necessary things.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a new dystopian series to get into. This book was excellent, and there's so much potential for the rest of the series! I think fans of Uglies would especially like this book, with the whole idea of being Masked and all. I can't wait to find out what happens next in Kitty's story! 5/5.
--Ashley
