The Acceptance

The GEOs, Book 1

By: Ramona Finn

Narrated by: Alexandra Hunter

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

Hidden underground, survival is all she knows. 

Humanity is on the brink of extinction. After being decimated by a deadly virus, Earth’s population was saved only by the genius of Farrow Corp. Now, the scientists in Farrow’s Labs work tirelessly to search for a cure to the genetic plague that has left everyone hiding below ground, suffering in fear. 

Underground survival is dark and dank, an existence Tylia will do anything to escape in order to save her mother from the ravages of illness. There is one answer: the Acceptance Trials. If she survives, her immunity guarantees her and her family a home in the Labs, and a renewed life for her mother. 

But the world above is vastly different from what she’s been led to believe. When Tylia is rescued from the jaws of death during the trials by a handsome stranger and discovers that Farrow Corp’s security forces are hunting her, everything she once believed about humanity’s chances for survival are flipped on their head. 

Turns out, surviving the virus may be the least of Tylia’s concerns....

©2020 Relay Publishing (P)2020 Relay Publishing

Fantastic YA Dystopian Novel

Yes, there are similarities to Hunger Games and Divergent, but there are way more differences than similarities. This first book definitely left me wanting to hear more. It’s like her journey is only just getting started and I can’t wait to find out where it goes from here. Right now I’m suspicious of everyone and everything that comes into contact with Tylia. I need to know more. I need to find out who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. And, if the virus is real, how do they resolve that part of the equation. I’m definitely going to listen to the next book in the series. Although the ending to book one wrapped up nicely, I just need to know more! The narrator of this book is awesome. She really puts the mood in the book. She remains serious and even suspicious sounding always. She keeps you in the mood of the book almost the way theatrical music does during a movie. She does an amazing job with this book! I received this book for free at my request from Audiobook Boom in exchange for my honest review.

An interesting premise with a weak foundation

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. The premise of the book is interesting, but it quickly begins to shake itself apart as the foundation of the story begins to collapse and it tries to prop itself up with several cliche tropes as it limps toward the finish line. The main character goes from being a strong protagonist to a weak teenager and flips between the two as needed for the story. The why of the acceptance ceremony is never explained and never makes any sense at all, and the science of the deadly virus, science we've all become familiar with over the last year unfortunately, also doesn't make any sense. There's a concept that, while a touch cliche, is intriguing. It was just unfortunately bogged down by trying to conform to popular tropes of the genre instead of standing out as something more original. Hopefully future books in the series break away from the tropes that tend to drown many books in the YA genre and stand on its own. I would warn readers that later chapters of the book do heavily skirt the line of the 'noble savage' trope, to the point where it's almost nearly offensive, and the accent the reader chose to take for those characters does not help.