DNF 30%. No rating.

I NEVER say this in a review but this time it’s really true: this book was not for me. I had trouble being interested in it because even though the blurb reassures us this is not YA, it had all the dystopian YA tropes heavily represented. I guess the sex and some of the brothel scenes are why YA readers are warned away, so yes some content is 18+ but it felt so Young Adult I almost wished it fit there better. The writing was great but I felt like the characters were quite derivative and cliched. The heroine; a scrappy, ‘doesn’t know she’s beautiful’ underdog with a heart of gold and the hero; a tall, handsome bad boy with hidden depth. It was hard to be invested in them. Also the bad guys were not nuanced, they were all bad and twisted and the evil corporation just substituted the normal bad/sociopathic government that’s usually in YA. All of these things made me feel too old for this book, it lacked complexity and reminded me of so many books my 13 year old loves <—- those are great books too, but not for someone looking for subtlety.
The above is mostly a preference thing because I realize that all the things I listed are extremely loved conventions of the genre. I picked this up because I loved the author’s first novel, and I will look out for more from her. This one just wasn’t a good fit for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this work.