[Review: The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings]

"The Murder Complex"
Author: Lindsay Cummings
Series: The Murder Complex #1
Pages: 400
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Date Published: June 10th, 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via Edelweiss) for honest review

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Summary:

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.

-Goodreads

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My Thoughts:

An Open Letter To The Murder Complex,

Well, flux this! Book, you came at me and let me know that I have pet peeves when it comes to reading that I would have never known of otherwise. You allowed yourself to "fake swear" all over the place and I couldn't stop complaining about it. So, thank you? Luck for you I did enjoy your story and all the gore held inside of you, so that helped. You're kind of a mess for me, but I don't dislike you, even if I'm not your biggest fan. 

-The White Unicorn

Okay, let's start out with the good. Cummings has created a really fast paced, gory, twisted dystopian mystery. It's got a lot going for it and the pacing that she chooses to use is perfect. Parts of this book didn't work for me at all, but Cummings' writing style kept me interested. She knows how to weave a story and she's not afraid to write about murder, which is convenient, looking at the title of this book. Her story and the plot where a total delight. I didn't realize that the book was 400 pages as I was reading it, which I think is good thing when you're reading a longer novel.

Now things just get confusing. I have a big bag of mixed feelings about all of the characters. At times they are some of the strongest that I've read in awhile and then just like that a switch flips and they seem very wishy-washy to me. 

Meadow is a total badass, and there is nothing better then that. She knows how to kill, she doesn't fear anything, she's hard and doesn't know what love is like. And then on the other hand she's unsure, she's worried about what people think and she's not the smartest. She becomes a muddle of inconsistency and it bummed me out. 

  

Zephyr had the same issues. I don't want to spoil what happens, but at one point he seems like he doesn't want to deal anymore and he does something not so brilliant that affects a lot of people. But then as you get to know him you're supposed to see him as this caring guy who puts others before himself, even though he contemplates making that same mistake again. He's all over the place.

Which leads me to whatever was happening between the two of them. It seems like insta-love, it looks like insta-love, it feels like insta-love, but I still can't tell you if it's really insta-love or not. They have this weird "connection", that's for sure. There is love happening and it comes on quick. It makes what they have seem fake, and I just didn't buy them as more then friends. I think Zephyr had way better chemistry with Talen, which says a lot.

I also didn't feel like I could really get a grasp on what was happening emotionally in this book. There are a lot of complex emotions happening, but they fall flat. I think this could have been an issue because of my confusion about the characters in general. But it was an issue for me.

This leads to my least favorite thing about the novel. The "wooden swearing". I'm not sure why Cummings made up swear words for this book. Every time I read Flux, or Skitz, or Stars, or Chumhead it pulled me out of the story. It didn't feel authentic, it felt weird. You'd be reading and all the sudden one of these words would pop up and it would get weird. I guess I prefer that characters cuss like pros, or that they don't cuss at all before I read anymore made up swear words. I think I commented on this about a million times as I was reading. I wish it wasn't a thing.

When I get down to the bones of my feelings about this book. I liked it? See I'm still not entirely sure. But I know that I'll be reading the other books in the series, because even though there was so much I didn't like, I kinda of love Cummings' main story and need to find out what happens.

Rating:

3 Unicorns = I liked it, but it had it's issues!