Book: Halo (formerly named Raksha)Author: Frankie Rose
Genre: Dystopian
Pages: 354
Published: January 21st, 2014
Summary: She has no name. She has her knives. Her training. Her halo.
The first and second give her the ability to defeat the opponents she is pitted against each month. The third frees her from pain and fear. From any kind of emotion at all. Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it should be, until…
Fear… Pain… Anger… Happiness… Desire… Guilt…
Love.
When a newly named Kit escapes the Sanctuary after killing her best friend, the last thing she needs is another knife in her hand. Or Ryka, the damaged, beautiful blond boy, whom she refuses to let save her. The sights and sounds of Freetown are new, yet one thing is familiar: the matches. The only difference? Where the blood in the Sanctuary landed only on the Colosseum floor, Kit will quickly learn that a river of red runs through Freetown’s very streets.
Without her halo, the inhabitants of Kit’s new home consider her saved, but is that really the case? The reality of her old life is paralyzing. Would she be better off free of the guilt associated with all the blood on her hands, or is the love of one boy worth living through all the pain?
Raksha is the call of the dead. It is the rumbling chant for fresh blood from the other side, the demand for sacrifice. The Colosseum is behind Kit. The fighting pits await.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
¨Just because you don't want to feel something- its not convenient, or you just want to ignore it- doesn't mean its going to go away.
I got this book by downloading it free off the Kindle store. I was terrified it would be a terrible read since it cost me nothing to obtain it, but it turned out to be very nice. It tells the story of Kit, a girl from the future who, due to technology, has absolutely no feelings and feels no pain. When the collar, called a "Halo," around her neck becomes broken she feels a wave of emotions for the first time. Happiness, guilt, fear, pain, and everything else. It's almost too much for her.
This was a great, fast-paced dystopian story that kept me interested the whole way through. I loved reading about how Kit coped with feeling all the pent-up guilt, happiness, love, anger, pain, and fear for the first time in her life. I cant imagine what it be like to make her painful transition. In her past shes killed upwards of a hundred people with no regret, horror, or second thoughts, and now all of it in sinking in.
It's interesting to see these two cities, Freetown and the Sanctuary, so close together. They have many differences on freedom and the value of human life, but they still both have death matches and and corruption in the government. If I was your English teacher I ask you to compare the similarities of the two, and whether one is truly better than the other, but I'm not going to. It just vaguely interested me.
Now some of you might say 5 stars is an over-reaction (this book isn't becoming a classic anytime soon), but it kept me entertained and excited. In my mind it deserved the rating.
I'd suggest this this as a great summer read for anyone who wants a fairly quick dystopian novel.
Since downloading this book I've gotten a bunch more free books off the Kindle, and I have high hope for them. I am ready to have all my hopes dashed to shreds. Please tell me if you know any good books to get.
-Claire
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