Audiobook Review: The Young World by Chris Weitz

Author: Chris Weitz
Narrated By: Jose Julian & Spencer Locke
Publication: July 29, 2014
By: Blackstone Audio/ Little Brown Books for Young Readers 
Amazon | Goodreads 
 
"Only teens have survived a mysterious catastrophe in the first YA novel from acclaimed film producer, director, and screenwriter Chris Weitz"

Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens.

After a mysterious sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he s secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.

The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park and discovers truths they could never have imagined."

*I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review* 

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book. There are parts that I enjoyed, namely Peter's character, but there is a lot that I didn't.

Audio: The narrators did a fairly decent job, although the male narrator tended to mumble at times, making it hard to know exactly what he was saying. (I'm glad I had a pb copy to defer to.)

Story: This reads more like a script or screenplay rather than a novel. Not a bad thing, just something that takes a little getting used to.

It had lots of diversity but wasn't so in your face that it screamed, LOOK AT ME BEING ALL DIVERSE AND STUFF! The alternating POV was interesting and I liked how both the optimistic and pessimistic sides of the situation were represented.

The characters were enjoyable to a point, but the actual dialogue was grating at times. Donna hits the mark with how 99.9% of teenage girls speak, but her use of the word "like" was like, soooo annoying. (See what I did there?)

And then there is Jefferson. I get that he is a teenage boy with raging hormones and whatnot, and I realize his lifespan is short, but how can you claim to love someone--HAVE loved them your whole life---and turn around and hookup with the first girl who bats her eyes at you? (Or in his case, takes her shirt off and kisses him.) Up until that point, I respected Jefferson, I LIKED how smart, how different he was from the other boys. And I understand he was hurt, but I felt like his choice reduced him to the stereotypical teenage boy which ticked me off. AND his declaration of feelings at the end felt completely unbelievable. Like, REALLY? The same holds true for the other person. 

I'm not sure this was the book for me, but I do think it was a pretty accurate depiction of what would happen if the world was left to teenagers. *cringes* 

THE YOUNG WORLD is book one in a trilogy.