Review: Level 2 - Lenore Appelhans

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 3 stars  
Cover Rating: 4.5 stars (Besides the weird glare thing over her face, this cover is flawless.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: January 15, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Page Count: 281 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Felicia is dead. She knows she's dead and their is something that isn't right, but whenever she thinks that she just goes back to plug in. Apparently being dead puts you into these hive-like, stark white places. You plug into machines of some sort that allow you to re-watch your memories from earth. You can also buy other people's memories when you've had enough of yours (or if you don't have that many good ones). When the rebellion comes for Felicia she has already started to find that she doesn't like this hive any more and wants something beyond these white walls. Though she doesn't know who to trust, she at least hopes that once she's out she could always go off on her own. But, she may be the key for this rebellion to work...or fail.

This was a pretty interesting novel. A different take on the afterlife. I really enjoyed the world building in this novel. It seemed a bit dizzying and that, I think, was the point. I was glad there was plenty of backstory to make Level 2 really come to life. It wasn't just this place that was and always will be. It was mutated to be turned into something different than how it was originally intended.

There were quite a few surprises which was really great. I thought I had things all figured out and then...the tables turned. It was like a complete shocker, but it was definitely not what I was expecting. I appreciate when a novel can surprise me, it isn't just following the same formula as other novels.

Felicia was kind of an all over the place character. I never really felt all that connected with her. I don't know why, there was just something about her that never really made me click. Perhaps it was the way the story was structured.

At first I really enjoyed the flow of the story with the memories interspersed. I thought it was a great way to get some backstory with the characters without having to start back in time. Unfortunately I found that this dramatically slowed down the action in the last half of the book. There would be lots of things happening and then...memory time. Some of the memories worked, but some of them just caused the action to grind to a halt.

I was also a bit disappointed with her big tragedy  The big thing she did wrong and the alleyway scene. They seemed to be built up to be much worse than they were. Not that either of them weren't awful, they just weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be.

Despite my complainants I was quite enjoying this book; but then, a few pages from the end was "'Don't look with you eyes. Look with your soul,' he says."...I just don't like that at all. How cheesy that is. Near the end, in the middle of all the action. BLEH! Besides that infraction though, this was an enjoyable novel. I will probably check ou the next one, though I was satisfied with the ending of this one. 

First Line:

"I'll sleep when I'm dead."

Favorite Line:

"'You know, beekeeping is a serious business,' he scolds."