Publisher: William Morrow
Date of publication: June 2013
The Registry saved the country from collapse. But stability has come at a price. In this patriotic new America, girls are raised to be brides, sold at auction to the highest bidder. Boys are raised to be soldiers, trained by the state to fight to their death.
Nearly eighteen, beautiful Mia Morrissey excitedly awaits the beginning of her auction year. But a warning from her married older sister raises dangerous thoughts. Now, instead of going up on the block, Mia is going to escape to Mexico—and the promise of freedom.
All Mia wants is to control her own destiny—a brave and daring choice that will transform her into an enemy of the state, pursued by powerful government agents, ruthless bounty hunters, and a cunning man determined to own her . . . a man who will stop at nothing to get her back.
I really wanted to like The Registry. The synopsis made it sound very interesting. I like most dystopian future books and I really wanted to like this book. Sadly, it fell short for me. It isn't a YA, but it had a very YA feel to it. It also had two things I don't like in books: a cliffhanger ending and the dreaded love triangle.
The book is set about 100 years in the future. Something happened to make the US create a registry where women essentially are married off to the highest bidder at age 18. If they aren't married within a year, they are married to the government and put in crummy jobs. As for the boys, the vast majority of them are given up right after their birth to live in orphanages. When they turn 13, they are forced out on the street to fend for themselves until they have to report for military service at age 18. Twisted, right? But that is what most dystopian futures are like, pretty twisted. The problem with this system is that the boys (who make it out of the service) grow up to be men who think of women as only property and become abusive. The girls are raised to be clueless slaves for their husbands who better churn out girl babies or else. Apparently, they have forgotten in this future that it is the men who determine the sex of the babies.
My main frustration with the book is that there is no clear reason why the world became like this. Mia, the main character, repeatedly asks people why the Registry came about, but no one can give her a clear answer. I don't like when, by the end of the first book in a series, I don't have an inkling of what really happened. I don't want to have to wait until the second book.
The other thing that fell flat for me were the characters. I'm not sure I really cared for any of them. Whitney just annoyed me. Mia was too wishy-washy. I think I was most sympathetic toward Andrew. In a way, I felt bad for him. He gets roped into helping Mia and Whitney escape, when all he wants to do it serve his four years and move on with his life. I will admit that the bad guy is truly evil and I did like that. The introduction of Carter and his Insta-love for Mia was just creepy. I thought it was totally unnecessary.
It's a fairly quick read, but I don't think I would recommend it. You can check out what other people on the tour are saying here. In the end, I'm not sure if I will continue with the series.
About the author:
When she's not working or writing Shannon spends the majority of her time playing with her terrier mix Nucky or her husband.
She loves watching horror movies, including those straight to DVD classics most people never heard of. If she wasn't an attorney or an author she would have been a beautician and is constantly bugging her friends to come over and let Shannon play with their hair.
1 comment:
Darn, I'm sorry this one wasn't quite your cup of tea but thanks for being on the tour.
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