Review: Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent

Title: Brave New Girl 

Author:  Rachel Vincent
Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: May 9th, 2017

Pages: 255
Genre: YA Sci-Fi/ Dystopian

Series:  
Source: 

 

We have brown hair. Brown eyes. Fair skin. We are healthy and strong and smart. But only one of us has ever had a secret.

Dahlia 16 sees her face in every crowd. She’s nothing special—just one of five thousand girls created from a single genome to work for the greater good of the city.

Meeting Trigger 17 changes everything. He thinks she’s interesting. Beautiful. Unique. Which means he must be flawed. When Dahlia can’t stop thinking about him—when she can't resist looking for him, even though that means breaking the rules—she realizes she’s flawed, too. But if she’s flawed, then so are all her identicals. And any genome found to be flawed will be recalled.

Destroyed.

Getting caught with Trigger would seal not only Dahlia’s fate, but that of all five thousand girls who share her face. But what if Trigger is right? What if Dahlia is different?

Suddenly the girl who always follows the rules is breaking them, one by one by one…

I wanted to read this book last year and just never seemed to get to it. Now I have and it was really good. I love a good dystopian and this was not short on good. I was pulled right into the story. The writing was just my style, it was a fast read, and it kept my attention throughout. 

Dahlia 16 is a clone- one of 5000. She lives in a compound learning the part she will play for the community. Her world is interrupted when is spoken to by a boy, a boy from another part of the compound. This is forbidden. She is interested and can't quit thinking about him. This leads to trouble which leads to secrets, which leads to questions, which leads to lies, which leads to Dahlia's world coming undone. 

There really wasn't a part of this book I didn't enjoy... well except for the ending... it was a cliffhanger and I didn't have more to read. Other than that it was quite enjoyable. A little short but not too short. Fast paced. There seemed to be enough explained to me to understand the world Dahlia lived in but not an overload. I didn't come out with questions in the end that should have been answered... except for what the crap happens next... It really read smoothly for me. 

I feel like the story wasn't too original but unique enough for me to feel it was a new read. I know sometimes dystopias can get to feeling like the same old same old. This story had that in the sense that the community is controlled. The residents feel its for the best but really its suffocating. Boy and girl meet in the story and things change. Eyes are opened. Then there is an escape. But there was enough in the secrets and betrayals that I never saw coming that kept me on my toes for sure and made this read unique. Also, the characters held their own for me and the romance was sweet even if rushed. 

So Dahlia 16, I just adored her. She was so innocent and sweet. She was a real rule follower and really didn't even think something was off or wrong about her world. She was so naive. It wasn't annoying though instead, she was cute and interesting. I liked seeing the innocence through her eyes. When she did start to question and learn some truths, she became brave through her fear and she really fought to do the right thing. 

Trigger was fun. He was pretty cliche as the rule breaker, heartthrob, hero, troublemaker, irresistible, girl magnet kind of boy, but I still liked him. Nothing really special but nothing that I didn't enjoy. He did play his part in changing Dahlia's world. He did do his part in saving her. He did what he was supposed to do and he had some good one-liners. 

The romance is again fast, insta-love, although I don't remember love ever being mentioned more of a very strong attraction thing. A hormone and a safe feeling kind of attraction. It made sense since they were never allowed to have relationships. It didn't bother me. I thought it was cute. For sure the innocent first love puppy love kind of thing. 

So really the only gripes I have is this... cliffhanger ending and I just wanted more. I will for sure grab the next installment asap and can't wait for it. This is kind of an easy laid back fluffy kind of read with a background of dystopian, deeper roots story. 

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more. 

A resident of Oklahoma, Rachel Vincent has a BA in English and an overactive imagination, and consistently finds the latter to be more practical. She shares her workspace with two black cats (Kaci and Nyx) and her # 1 fan. Rachel is older than she looks-seriously-and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan.