Paradigm | Ceri A. Lowe | Reviewed by Anjali
"What if the end of the world was just the beginning?"
When the storms hit, no amount of preparation could have stopped the death and destruction that they brought. Alice Davenport arrives home one day to discover that her mother is missing, the people in her building have disappeared and the storms are only getting worse. As the water rises, and races down the no-longer-recognisable streets, taking everything and anything - including bodies - along with it, Alice is finally rescued and taken to a safe place, along with any remaining survivors. Paradigm Industries, the organisation providing safety, food, shelter, community and family in an underground bunker that stretches for miles, is all Alice knows now. Years later, she is selected to be one of the first people out into the world again, to asses the storm damage, and to create a new future...
87 years later, Carter Warren is finally awoken from 15 years of being frozen in the Catacombs. He steps out in the world ready to make a difference, ready to step into the shoes that his parents couldn't fill. But only something is different now. While he is in the running to become (no, not America's Next Top Model) the Controller General, Carter discovers that 15 years is a long time to be away, and he begins to question every thing and every person he thought he knew. To fix any chance they have of creating a better future, Carter has to understand the past...
Written in third person from the perspectives of Alice and Carter, the chapters alternate between the two characters; Alice, whose world has been destroyed and is in need of a completely new system...and Carter, several generations later, who is starting to realise that that system is no longer working. While the characters themselves didn't really have me captivated or falling in love with them, I liked Carter better, but Alice's story line more. I think that perhaps that's because the majority of dystopian novels are set in what is already a dystopian society; it's already run by manipulating, controlling people who have put forward rules and regulations, and feed lies to people...it's already that world that we are in when we start reading. But with Paradigm, Lowe takes us back to the beginning of what will be a dystopian-like society. It's the beginnings of something new, and it's not very often that we get to read about the makings of societies like these.
But Alice's character...? Meh. Didn't really like her. But her story was better. Carter was more likeable, I thought, but I was more interested, like a said, in Alice's story. Strange, but true.
If you're a fan of the dystopian genre, and would like to read something a little different, then give Paradigm a read. It came out in June this year, so it's available now.
Thanks to Ceri Lowe and Net Galley for providing me with a copy of this book for an honest review.
This review was written by regular reviewer Anjali, get to know her here.
Image from Good Reads.
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