Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi (Under the Never Sky #1)
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Title: Under the Never Sky
Author: Veronica Rossi
Pages: 374
Publisher: Harper Collins/HarperTeen
Available: Barnes and Noble
From the Publisher: Since she’d been on the outside, she’d survived an Aether storm, she’d had a knife held to her throat, and she’d seen men murdered. This was worse.
Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland – known as The Death Shop – are slim. If the cannibals don’t get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She’s been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild – a savage – and her only hope of staying alive.
A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile – everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria’s help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.
I went into this book with very very high expectations. The hype surrounding it had just built it up so much that I was expecting the next Hunger Games or Mortal Instruments.
Instead…. I was bored for the first 2/3 of the book.
The world-building and character development were lacking. The interactions between the characters seemed very two-dimensional and flat. But I kept reading. The idea of the story intrigued me enough that I wanted to know more. And it paid off.
By the end, I was fully invested and ready for book two. I fell in love with Aria, Perry, and Roar. I wanted nothing more than to help get Talon back and for everyone to live happily ever after.
But of course… this is only the first book of a trilogy – and there can’t be a happily ever after for at least two more books.
One thing I really appreciate about this series is that it is unique. The world and story are both something I haven’t really seen before. The mutations/gifts that some of the outsiders have is a new twist on the supernatural that isn’t supernatural at all. I appreciate reading a post-apocalyptic story rather than a dystopian one (and yes – I had to ask on Twitter to learn that the difference is that the dystopian genre involves a corrupt government).
And of course – I’m always always a sucker for a good romance. 
Other Reviews:
I wish I had known you were reading this. I would have warned you about how slowly the book started. I would have WARNED YOU like a good bookish friend.
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I’ve been in such a reading slump that I literally don’t know what I’m going to read until I pick it up. And even then, it doesn’t always work out. But thanks!
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I thought the same thing, but you should definitely give the second one a go, it improves soo much.
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I did – don’t worry! That review will be up soon.
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