Pawn by Aimee Carter

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4/5 STARS

Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Author: Aimée Carter
Published: November 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia
Pages: 343 {paperback}

Original review on Goodreads

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Initial Thoughts Upon Finishing

Yes!! This was fantastic!! This type of books reminds me why I love Dystopian so much. I adored the plot and I loved the characters – this very much so reminded me of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard which I also loved. I highly recommend this to people who love their Dystopians – this is not to be missed!

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Pawn by Aimée Carter

This book definitely surprised me. I’d had this sitting around my room for such a long time and had got to the point where I’d basically decided that I just wasn’t going to read it. I’d borrowed it from a friend and was planning to return it the next day. But then curiosity got the better of me . . . .

I started reading the book at 10pm and night and it was done by the next morning. It was ADDICTIVE. This is such an awesome little dystopian story and I was flying through the pages determined to find out what would happen next. I just couldn’t put the silly thing down. I’m certainly glad that I did start reading it on a bit of whim because I would’ve kicked myself if I’d’ve missed out (not that I would’ve known, but just go with the logic).

I liked the way that the events unfolded in this story and it keeps you on your toes guessing as to what will happen just around the corner, right up until the very end. I really enjoyed both this book and also Red Queen but, for those of you undecided on this one because of that comparison, I would hedge a bet that many people would probably prefer this one. I definitely am going to need the second book now to work out what’s going on.

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What Happens

This is an epic dystopian story. Kitty is a young girl who’s about to sit a test that all people sit which determines their rank and therefore where they’re best suited to work within society. She gets a 3. Which isn’t too great. But it’s not because she’s not smart, it’s because she’s illiterate having never had the chance for much of an education. This means that she’ll be working hard and have a reduced life expectancy, and she really didn’t want that. Her best friend/romance interest, Benji, comes of age after her so they’re crossing their fingers that they can be together.

But, being dystopian, there’s exactly a 0% chance that anything is going to go her way. It turns out that she gets kidnapped and “masked”. It’s basically a full body plastic surgery sort of thing and she gets turned into the deceased Prime Minister’s niece, Lila Hart. Why? Because the public don’t know yet that Lila has died and so the family and all their wealth are going to use Kitty to act as Lila to keep the façade going. They will try to manipulate her and use her as a pawn in their political game of chess to make everything happen how they want. And no-one has any idea who can trust each other.

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What I Loved

I loved quite a lot of things about this book but in particular I loved how perfectly dystopian it was. There’s a wonderfully corrupt government and a poor character sucked out of poverty to be battered around with the aristocracy for their own purposes. You have no idea throughout the whole book who’s really doing anything good and whether there’s any chance Kitty can escape this world and find Benji again. There are so many horrors unfurled to her – particularly in respect to what happens to old people. You see, in this world (it’s set in America many years in the future) old people are useless as they can’t work. They get taken somewhere “nice” but who wants to take bets that’s it’s actually something dreadful, hey?

I liked not quite knowing all the different layers to each character we meet – it certainly made for an on-edge reading experience. Not to mention how sad it is that Kitty has just had her entire life stollen from her in such a cruel way. Oh, and did I mention that not everyone in the Prime Minister’s household knows that she’s not Lila? Mhm. How’s that for stress. This is just packed to the brim with ridiculous characters and sometimes you just want to slap them silly and get them into line. Gah.

Basically, this is such a great page-turner and I highly recommend it for dystopian fans. If you want some nefarious plots and evil characters who aren’t who they seem three times over, then this is definitely for you. I have no idea how things are going to progress but oooh boy am I excited to read the next book.

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Summary

I’m going to keep this sweet and short because this is such a great book but you don’t need to know and shouldn’t know anything else going into it. I feel like we could happily say that if Red Queen and The Hunger Games had a baby, this would be it. I dare you to not like this book. In short, do I think this is worth it? DAMN STRAIGHT I DO.

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 You might also like . . .

If you like characters who are thrown into positions of power and for the most part hate it, The Hunger Games is for you.

If you like books where the main character is dragged into an upperclass world that’s really quite horrible, Red Queen is for you.

If you like Dystopian with less hate and more sexy men, The Selection is for you.

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Have you read this book? What did you think?

Let me know below!

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~~ Kirstie ~~

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