REVIEW: Branded by Abi Ketner (minor spoilers)

Branded

(The Sinners Series 1)

Abi Ketner

Star rating: 3 stars

One word review: Predictable

Fifty years ago The Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society.

To punish the guilty, he created the Hole, a place where sinners are branded according to their sins. Sinners are forced to live a less than human existence in deplorable conditions, under the watchful eye of guards who are ready to kill anyone who steps out of line.

Now, LUST wraps around my neck like thick, blue fingers, threatening to choke the life out of me. I’ve been accused of a crime I didn’t commit, and the Hole is my new home.

Constant darkness.

Brutal and savage violence.

Excruciating pain.

Every day is a fight for survival.

But I won’t let them win. I will not die in the Hole.

I am more than my brand. I’m a fighter. My name is Lexi Hamilton, and this is my story.

So this book had so much potential, I mean come on... you have sins and branding... but not everything hit the target.

Okay, so when the book starts its really fast paced... I mean you have gun fights, arrests and some of the best character introductions of all time; the first 100 pages get your heart pumping... like really. But then something happens and the book looses its mogo, goes from being a fast paced page turner to being a bedtime read used to lull yourself into a sleep. Now I don't know whether this was from knowing how predictable some of the turns would be but nothing seemed to be catching.

First thing, the love scenario... more predictable than anything; I mean a girl gets arrested and branded as being a 'slut' forced to live in a hole with the rest of the condemned but then she falls in love with guard sent to watch her and they start a secret love affair that puts them both in mortal danger.

The we have the people in command... from the get go you can almost predict who it will be, they introduce the bad guy too early and its pretty clear from the nightmares and hints that this will be the guy, however they do manage to throw a little surprise in there which was nice.

Now the ending of this book is that similar to the ending of Divergant that its hard not to comment, the start of a revolution... someone special on the run with the person she wasn't meant to love but does anyway... cliché is an understatement.

There were several elements of the book that I really did like, the main one being the nature of the dog; a guard dog that enjoys playing in rubbish and getting tangled in all things sticky. I love how he's portrayed and how he is worked into the storyline. Beautiful, just a shame the same attention wasn't placed with the human characters, whom I found wanting in specific elements of 3d'ness'.

Now there are trigger warnings on this book as it contains some disturbing scenes, so if rape, child illness, terminal illness and abuse are triggers for you, I would suggest giving this book a bit of a wide berth as these are found throughout.  

Overall, the book was okay... mediocre... would have been brilliant if they had kept the pace of the first half of the book and made things less cliché but sometimes you need a little predictability in your life I suppose.