by Chris Mooney
Published on August 18, 2020 by Berkley Books
ISBN: 0593197631
Format: eARC
Pages: 448
Genres: Adult, Science Fiction
The most valuable commodity on earth is the blood of "carriers." These young people hold within them a virtual fountain of youth. Those with the right genes produce blood that, when treated with a new wonder drug, cures disease, increases power, and makes the recipient a virtual superman.
It also makes the carriers targets. Blood farms filled with kidnapped children spring up around the country, and Los Angeles is at the center of this blood-dealing world. The police are overwhelmed.
Ellie Bautista became an LAPD officer specifically to fight this evil as a member of the Blood Squad, but she has been consistently denied a transfer to the prestigious unit--until the day she and her partner are ambushed during a routine stop. The resulting events plunge her into an undercover world more dangerous than she could have ever imagined.
A madman has found a way to increase the potency of the blood to levels previously unimagined. As he cuts a bloody swath through the already deadly world of blood cartels, Ellie is the only hope to stop him before the body count rises.
Sometimes Taking A Chance Just Doesn’t Work Out
The Highlights:
- Too many details
- Not great attitudes toward women
- Genre blending
- I really just didn’t like this one
Going into Blood World, I knew I was taking a risk. It’s not the type of book I would normally have picked up. But I’ve been trying to read more widely, to branch out this year. The synopsis promised crime thriller elements- a genre I’m new to but loving at the moment-, and sci-fi is a genre I’ve been trying to explore more.
Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me. And I kind of figured that out after the first sentence. That one sentence alone included approximately one thousand adjectives. Yikes. A book that starts out with a sentence that’s 60+ words long is never a good sign for me. And it turned out to be foreshadowing. The copious amounts of unnecessary detail in Blood World had my attention drifting every few minutes. It made me feel as though there were a wall between me and the story that I just couldn’t break past to get into it.
My other big issue was the way women were written about and treated by other characters. It felt gross. I can see where it wasn’t overtly misogynistic, or it was then those thoughts and actions were coming from a bad character, but I still didn’t like to read it. Which is fine, we all have differing taste in books, no? But it definitely kept me from enjoying this one. The main character is a woman, and I just never felt that she was believable. Right at the start, her much older, male colleague makes a reference to how attractive she is while they’re on the clock. Sure, maybe he wasn’t a bad guy, maybe he didn’t mean anything by it. But it was gross. And then it just went downhill from there. Like I said, others may be fine with reading that sort of thing, but I didn’t enjoy it and I wasn’t going to force myself to keep reading.
I went out on a limb for Blood World and it really just didn’t work out for me. Oh well, maybe next time. I have a hard time thinking who I would recommend this one to, but that might just be because I don’t read a lot of sci-fi and don’t know many people personally who do. But every book has its readers out there somewhere, so I say that if the premise of Blood World catches your eye the way it initially did mine, give it a shot. Just maybe don’t expect too much from it.
About Katie
I'm a twenty-something aspiring writer who really, really needs to get back to revisions. I've been reviewing books since 2014, and am determined to somehow make stories my day job. I truly think that every book out there contains something good and is meant for somebody.
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