Title: The Bridge
Author: Jane Higgins
# Of Pages: 344
Publisher: Tundra Books
Publication Date: October 9, 2012
Source: LibraryThing
Level: Young Adult
Rating: 3
Hearts
Synopsis
(From Amazon.com)
The City is divided.
The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation,
waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside.
Nik is still in high
school but is destined for a great career with the Internal Security and
Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes
recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn't chosen. There must be an
explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the
hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the
hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik.
But Nik is on the
run, with Sol's sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge
in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he had never dared to ask.
My Verdict
I don’t really have any strong feelings about this book. I
mostly feel indifferent.
The book is told from the perspective of main character,
Nik, whom I thought was a girl for the first few pages before it told me
otherwise. I didn’t dislike Nik, he was a good person who kept getting into
trouble for nothing which made me mad; I felt so bad for him. My favorite
character, however, was Fyffe, she was so brave in the face of danger, and
willing to do whatever it took to get her brother back. The character names
were all really original which I loved: Dash, Jono, Fyffe, Sol, Jeitan,
Levkova, Coly, Lanya. I really loved Levkova, it was just fun to say.
The world building is a big thing in dystopian fiction. I
find it really has the power to either make or break a book. While the war-torn
City divided into Southside and Cityside is well described visually and easy to
imagine yourself in, the politics behind it became really confusing to me,
especially near the end.
There is a lot of action to keep you turning pages and the
ongoing search for Sol that keeps you interested. I was both happy and upset
with the ending but you can’t always get the best of both worlds I suppose. I’m
not really sure if this is a standalone novel or the beginning of a series? It
works perfectly fine as a standalone but I could also see it going further.
