Atlantia by Ally Condie

TL;DR vaguely dystopian-like world divided above / below water

(finished 5/27/15)

I had kind of mixed expectations for Atlantia -- the concept and the cover art are amazing (and cover art can mean a lot to me, ngl), but I really wasn't impressed by Matched. And I've gotta say, I think Atlantia is definitely better. 

I think the execution of the concept is pretty good. I think it could've been better, at least in the sense that I had trouble sitting down and reading at first, but the worldbuilding was solid enough that I had no issues trying to read it. I think there definitely could've been more, but the stuff that's in Atlantia was enough for me for the plot to function without being overbearing. I'm very against super-long descriptions of settings, especially when a book is in first person. (Which Atlantia is.) If the narrator points out too many details, it's not realistic. That's the author's voice coming through. 

I can't say I was really attached to any of the characters. I understood them, but the possibility of them dying wasn't a very "oh no" feeling for me. (As a side note, death plays enough of a role in the story that you might want to avoid the book if that bothers you. It's not bad, but it is present and a part of the plot.) I was pretty ambivalent towards Rio, but she wasn't necessarily a bad character or narrator. I was pretty ambivalent about the romance aspect of the story, too, but it's a fairly small piece of what happens, so I'm just gonna let it go. 

Also, I can say that the dust cover / goodreads descriptions are great. They're actually what I would love to see all the time in books. It explains the background and inciting incident, and a little part of the rising action, while giving almost nothing away about the climax or the ending. The "plot twist" -- not like an "omg what the heck" sudden realization, but a very slow process -- wasn't what I was expecting to happen, but it fit, and in looking back at the blurb I realized that it almost exactly says what happens without giving it away. Why can't all books be like that? 

So I think the biggest negatives for Atlantia are the slow beginning (in my opinion) and the ambivalence I had towards the characters, but they aren't make-or-break by any means. Once the story got moving enough, I did sit down and read instead of being on the computer. I probably would've reached that point in the story sooner if I'd sat down to read it in class instead of only when I was waiting for my laptop to boot up completely. 

TL;DR a very solid 3/5 stars and a lot better than Matched.