★★☆☆☆
From Goodreads:
What is the price paid for the creation of a perfect society?
In Whitopolis, a gleamingly white city of the future where illness has been eradicated, shock waves run through the populace when a bedraggled, dirt-stricken boy materialises in the main street. Led by government propaganda, most citizens shun him as a demon, except for Wellesbury Noon – a high school student the same age as the boy.
Upon befriending the boy, Wellesbury feels a connection that he can’t explain – as well as discovering that his new friend comes from a land that is stricken by disease and only has two weeks to live. Why do he and a girl named Ezmerelda Dontible appear to be the only ones who want to help?
As they dig deeper, everything they know is turned on its head – and a race to save one boy becomes a struggle to redeem humanity.
In Whitopolis, a gleamingly white city of the future where illness has been eradicated, shock waves run through the populace when a bedraggled, dirt-stricken boy materialises in the main street. Led by government propaganda, most citizens shun him as a demon, except for Wellesbury Noon – a high school student the same age as the boy.
Upon befriending the boy, Wellesbury feels a connection that he can’t explain – as well as discovering that his new friend comes from a land that is stricken by disease and only has two weeks to live. Why do he and a girl named Ezmerelda Dontible appear to be the only ones who want to help?
As they dig deeper, everything they know is turned on its head – and a race to save one boy becomes a struggle to redeem humanity.
The perfect society's ugly secrets are about to be revealed.
The book unravels the truth the gleaming white society, Whitopolis, has hidden. A sixteen-year-old boy doesn't want to fit into the mould the society wants him to. Despite being sent to a correctional facility to listen to propaganda and turn him back into a model citizen, his curiosity can't be shut down. Wellesbury embarks on a journey to reveal the truth but falls victim to the mysterious disease, the same as the dirty boy. And the dirty boy has less than two weeks to live.
Wellesbury's character is a little bit text-bookish. He wants to be the hero, he has a so-called side-kick, fights against the evil government and survives in the end. (Sorry for spoiling, but it's kind of obvious from the start.) He doesn't surprise the reader at any point, he doesn't develop at all.
Actually the same goes for each and every character in the book. The plot line is a bit straightforward, which, in a way, doesn't allow room for any development. I didn't feel an emotional connection with the characters and for that reason, unfortunately, the entire story was one of those 'read through, wrote the review, forgot about it' - experiences.
But I'll have to say, that this story has so much potential. It bugs me, to the brink of almost being mad at myself, that I didn't like this book. Because of the idea behind it, the themes, the entire concept, just screams to be let out for the world to see. I really, really hope that someday it's going to happen.
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