‘The Raging Ones’ (The Raging Ones #1) by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie

4 stars - Futuristic, sci-fi fantasy YA novel with amazing friendships/relationships.

Authors Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie provide excellent world building.  The story takes place on a frozen planet, centuries into the future.  Over the course of many chapters, readers are slowly exposed to the religious beliefs, scientific explanations, social structure, norms and customs of this planet’s inhabitants.  I really enjoyed learning about this planet and appreciated the lack of info-dump.

‘The Raging Ones’ is told through alternating points of view of Franny, Court, and Mykal, which blend together to provide readers with a more complete picture of the story than any character has on their own.  When the story begins, Franny is working on plans for her upcoming deathday.  Court and Mykal, having both inexplicably dodged their deathdays, are making arrangements to lie, steal, and deceive their way into the highly coveted and limited positions aboard a space shuttle.

After the boys rescue Franny from nefarious thieves, she joins in their preparations.  Of the three, only Court has experience with the upper-class Influentials whom they need to imitate in order to gain positions on the space mission.  Lessons in etiquette, posture, speech, writing, reading, eating, and dressing help to bring Franny up to speed and reinforce Mykal’s understanding.  Meanwhile, all three teenagers adjust to various aspects of living with their new bond.

Once the trio arrives at the space mission training center, they must compete with over a thousand other applicants.  The connection shared between them differentiates ‘The Raging Ones’ from other YA competition books such as The Selection or Hunger Games.

The beginning of the book might seem a little slow to some readers, but I’m very glad I stuck with it.  These three characters are far more interesting once they meet up and slowly share their secrets.  The friendships/relationships that build between them are wholly unique experiences, and what really makes this book shine in my opinion.

Join Franny, Court, and Mykal on their adventure, starting August 14, 2018.  #TheRagingOnes #NetGalley

I voluntarily read a Review Copy of this book.  All opinions stated are solely my own and no one else’s.