Release Date: June 10th, 2008
Genre: Futuristic, primeval, dystopian
Publisher: David Fickling Books
Pages: 448
Series: The Inferior #1
Rating:
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Summary: 

STOPMOUTH AND HIS family know of no other life than the daily battle to survive. To live, they must hunt rival species, or negotiate flesh-trade with those who crave meat of the freshest human kind. It is a savage, desperate existence. And for Stopmouth, considered slowwitted hunt-fodder by his tribe, the future looks especially bleak. But then, on the day he is callously betrayed by his brother, a strange and beautiful woman falls from the sky. It is a moment that will change his destiny, and that of all humanity, forever.

Review: I saw this book in the bookstore a year ago and thought it was interesting. Passed that on to my grandmother who bought it for me Christmas 2009. I only just got around to reading it.

This book was extremely strange and confusing. It's one of those books that takes place in a non-earth world, and so they feel the need to re-name EVERYTHING. And it wasn't always obvious what they were talking about. It took me FOREVER to realize that "roof" was the sky, and "roofsweat" was rain!

As you can probably guess from the summary, this book gets pretty disturbing. The people in this book are cannibals. It's the only option they have. There are no vegetables in this world, only meat. That got a little creepy sometimes.

This book is also two different stories. The first half is its own contained story, and then the second half is its own COMPLETELY DIFFERENT story. This was very disorienting. I wasn't really sure which I was reading. The second story is quest-like, but the protagonists actually end up abandoning their quest. So... what was the point? *shrug*

Regardless of all this, I gave it 3 flowers because it was gripping. I stayed up until 2 am because I wanted to finish. I don't know if this is because the story itself was gripping, or if I just wanted to know where the heck this was going. Regardless, it kept me up.

The sequel has been finished and is currently going through the publication process for the UK. I don't know about the US.