Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky #1)

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bit of a slow start for me, but I ended up liking it before I finished.

Aria has spent her entire life in the safety of the domes. Exiled and cast into the outside world, she fights to survive. Perry is an Outsider, and has lived his entire life with his tribe outside the domes. They work together on their quests to get their lives back and discover who they really are along the way. (end of my generic book blurb)

Here's what was missing for me. Rossi creates a dystopian world and drops you into it with no real backstory, no true world building, and no explanations. I almost gave up on the book a few times because of it. I kept thinking she would explain by the end, but she didn't. I'm not expecting a perfectly drawn world ala JK Rowling, but I do want to understand what happened to create the dystopia. What triggered the changes in the world? What is Aether? How did the outsiders evolve and adapt? So much potential to create a cool backstory and it's brushed aside.

Aria is a bit of a Mary Sue, and Perry is frankly not very likable, but for some odd reason I liked the story enough to read the next book. Hopefully the explanations I am searching for are found there.

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