The Earth Dwellers Review

I couldn't give this book a five because of a few places where I didn't care about the things that were happening... Now, before you read my rant let me state this: if a book can evoke anger out of you then it is doing its' job for the most part. Plus, most of this rant is character driven.

“Wilde responds ‘fore I can even begin to think of what to say. ‘They’re scared of us. Because we’re different than them.’” – This is everyone in the series. They’re all the same. It kind of infuriates me. They're so upset about being treated differently, but they constantly keep going back to the same mentality of hating based on what others look like. Towards the end it got slightly better. This seemed inconsistent with the message I thought Estes was driving, but perhaps on a second read I will feel differently. Maybe that was his point? To show that we all hate racism but it seems the vast majority still fall into racist thoughts. Next.

It seems reckless for the Glassie to slaughter the Icers. They could have used them as pawns in the upcoming war. They know it’s coming, so why don’t they use them to add to their numbers? This seems hazy too. I don’t feel sad when they die, even though I loved Dazz and Buff. I felt like it’s a trick and they didn’t actually die. And then bam, the heaters see the dead bodies covered in crows. Then it finally hit me and I felt sad, but still not sad about the Icers and the potential relationship loss for Skye. I was sad for Dazz and Jolie not being able to experience life together. Mostly for Jolie.

The fact that President Lecter wears a red flower in his breast pocket – President Snow from The Hunger Games wears a red rose. Prim and Jolie have many similarities, they see war and death and are still beautiful and innocent and die at the end. This seems like an allusion perhaps, or maybe just coincidental. I'm not sure why it would be significant to allude to another contemporary YA novel rather than alluding to a classic novel.

Tristan’s mom-- I couldn’t care less for her. I don’t care that she had horrible things done to her. I don't care that "Borg" probably raped her and turned her into a prison. She abandoned her kids. She could have tried to escape with her kids and then I might have had sympathy for her, but she was completely selfish in her leaving. It's good that she was because Tristan and Killen would have grown up in a terrible life or killed, but still I DON'T CARE about her. Therefore, I couldn't care. I just COULND'T. Even if she died, I wouldn't have cared.

Everything just seemed to wrap up so perfectly, I was glad the Icers died. I might have vomited rainbows and butterflies if everything worked out. All the perfect little relationships drove me insane. Why couldn't it have been Tristan rather than Dazz? Ugh! David Estes, you drove me insane but it was still a great book.