Paradigm by Ceri A. Lowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Bookouture
Summary: What if the end of the world was just the beginning?
Alice Davenport awakens from a fever to find her mother gone and the city she lives in ravaged by storms – with few survivors.
When Alice is finally rescued, she is taken to a huge underground bunker owned by the mysterious Paradigm Industries. As the storms worsen, the hatches close.
87 years later, amidst the ruins of London, the survivors of the Storms have reinvented society. The Model maintains a perfect balance – with inhabitants routinely frozen until they are needed by the Industry.
Fifteen-year-old Carter Warren knows his time has come. Awoken from the catacombs as a contender for the role of Controller General, it is his destiny to succeed – where his parents failed.But Carter soon discovers that the world has changed, in ways that make him begin to question everything that he believes in. As Carter is forced to fight for those he loves and even for his life, it seems that the key to the future lies in the secrets of the past...
This was an enjoyable read. I particularly enjoyed how the story is told through two people, Alice and Carter. Alice, shows us how the world Carter lives in came to be. Carter takes us on a journey informed by the past but looking to the future. In many dystopian stories I read, I’m often left wanting in the “How did we get here?” department. Sometimes it comes in later books (if in a series) and other times, it’s never to really be seen or mapped out in a way that makes much sense. So, many points to Ceri Lowe for really crafting that part. It was engaging and felt real.
It’s not often that I don’t much like a main character for most of the story but that was the case with Carter. He certainly had a high opinion of himself and was certain of his ascendance to Controller but I didn’t see anything to credit him for the great majority of the book. As one character mentioned, that he was his parent’s child seemed to confer some sort of status to him, more than anything else. He didn’t seem exceptional to me in any way and that he was so sure of things in his surrounding for someone who’d been asleep for the last fifteen years made if very difficult for me to buy into his prescience. He didn’t seem to read situations or people very well either, so when things turn (and I saw these coming from several chapters preceding) I was actually happy for his fall. I haven’t cheered so much for a fall after such a deep case of hubris in a long time. I sided with the antagonist even though they were obviously on the “wrong” side of things. It finally gave me a reason and chance to root for Carter and by the story’s end, I did and was interested, very much, in what is next for him.
I’d definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a dystopian read. It wasn’t the usual fare that seem to be all over at the moment. I do look forward to reading the next book in the series.
I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
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