Review of Restart
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- Ngozi Onyibor
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Review of Restart
Technological advancement and electronic gadgets have made the lives of humans easier. Most people have become so attached to these gadgets that they can't imagine life without them. But have you ever thought of the likely consequences if malevolent individuals or organizations decide to take advantage of people's addiction to these devices to do something sinister? Restart by Drew Samuelsen explores that possibility.
Ulysses's phone was broken, so he couldn't make calls or use the internet. But his neighborhood wasn't left out when dead bodies and news of people dropping dead after looking at a phone or computer screen started spreading. His mother hadn't come home from work since the tragedy began, which added to his fears. So after days of waiting fruitlessly for her return, he set out to find her. On his journey, he meets and teams up with Finn McCool, a dog, the odd Tyler, a street-smart Xavier, and the super-intelligent Max. Together, they set out to find answers to the many questions that plague them with the Changed—behaviorally modified zombie-like humans—on their heels.
Restart, told from Ulysses's first-person viewpoint, is the novel version of a classic dystopian survival movie. Ulysses is perceptive, and his personality fits the narration quite well. However, what pulled me into the story is how compact and well told the story is. There were no cardboard characters or filler scenes. Every sentence is purposeful and aimed at driving the plot forward. Every character plays an active role in the story's events. Most of all, I like how the dog, Finn, served as the group's sixth sense. Drew depicted his ability to sense danger ahead of time well.
Drew Samuelsen is a precise writer. The book's action kicks off from the start, and I like how the author allowed the characters' backstories to filter through as the story unfurled. Another of the book's impressive qualities is how well Drew portrayed the characters' emotions. He brilliantly described their constant super alertness and how suspicious they were of noise and silence.
That being said, I wish the author had given more detail about the nature of the attack rather than just stating the means of transmission. Since it is the first book in the series, I hope subsequent installments will be more detailed.
Restart packs enough action to keep dystopian novel enthusiasts turning the pages. Still, the lucid descriptions of death and scavengers feeding on human corpses might make squeamish readers uncomfortable.
Drew is undoubtedly talented, and his novel was an utterly fascinating read. Sadly, the number of errors I spotted while reading prevents me from rating it higher than 3 out of 4 stars.
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Restart
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- Alex Reeves
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