Review: Feuds by Avery Hastings

Feuds by Avery Hastings

(Feuds #1)

Genres:Young Adult, Dystopian

Publication date: September 2nd, 2014

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In this breathless story of impossible love, perfection
comes at a deadly cost.

For Davis Morrow, perfection is a daily reality. Like all Priors, Davis has spent her whole life primed to be smarter, stronger, and more graceful than the lowly Imperfects, or “Imps.” A fiercely ambitious ballerina, Davis is only a few weeks away from qualifying for the Olympiads and finally living up to her mother’s legacy when she meets Cole, a mysterious boy who leaves her with more questions each time he disappears.

Davis has no idea that Cole has his own agenda, or that he’s a rising star in the FEUDS, an underground fighting ring where Priors gamble on Imps. Cole has every reason to hate Davis—her father’s campaign hinges on the total segregation of the Imps and Priors—but despite his best efforts, Cole finds himself as drawn to Davis as she is to him.

Then Narxis, a deadly virus, takes its hold--and Davis’s friends start dying. When the Priors refuse to acknowledge the epidemic, Davis has no one to turn to but Cole. Falling in love was never part of their plan, but their love may be the only thing that can save her world...in Avery Hastings's Feuds.

  Eh. That really sums up my feelings about Feuds. It wasn't bad. It just didn't keep my attention or interest. A lot of the time I spent reading this, it felt like a chore. I'd glance over at the never ending piles stack of books on my nightstand and wish that I could read something else. What I thought I was getting was going to be a dystopian with a beautiful cover. What I feel like I got was a tease of dystopian with a heavy helping of romance and a deceptively beautiful cover.

  The potential was there. It was begging to crawl out from behind the insta-love. I think that's why this book was so eh for me. I'm really into dystopians. I will devour them like no other. And while there's a great premise to Feuds, it's never elaborated on. There's hardly any world building. There isn't even much character building. It's just a big ol' pot of 'here's some insta-love, so let's just ignore everything else'. Nothankyounope.

  Sometimes I feel like Young Adult feels like it has to delve out insta-love. But the readers of Young Adult fiction aren't five year olds who watch Disney movies and expect a perfect Prince Charming and a happily ever after. Sure, a happily ever after is nice. But we don't need a perfect set of coincidences to get there. We want something that seems real. Something that we can relate to.

  All in all, I won't be tuning in for another book in this series. As much as I want to know about the society that this story is set in and Davis' past, I just can't sit through more declarations of love lust. The characters grated on my nerves because of the insta-love. There was simply nothing to redeem this book for me whenever I got to the end. It was just a lot of potential that was overshadowed and ignored.

**I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review with no compensation.