The Ward by Jordana Frankel
The Ward #1
Release Date: April 30th, 2013
Number of Pages: 480
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Source: Edelweiss
Sixteen-year-old Ren is a daredevil mobile racer who will risk everything to survive in the Ward, what remains of a water-logged Manhattan. To save her sister, who is suffering from a deadly illness thought to be caused by years of pollution, Ren accepts a secret mission from the government: to search for a freshwater source in the Ward, with the hope of it leading to a cure.
However, she never expects that her search will lead to dangerous encounters with a passionate young scientist; a web of deceit and lies; and an earth-shattering mystery that’s lurking deep beneath the water’s rippling surface.
Jordana Frankel’s ambitious debut novel and the first in a two-book series, The Ward is arresting, cinematic, and thrilling—perfect for fans of Scott Westerfeld or Ann Aguirre.
The Ward was one of those books I find so hard to
review. It is the kind of book that simply didn’t impress me. I was so excited
to get my hands on this book, as I loved dystopian novels. Yet, it failed to impress
me. I was just looking for more out of this book, and I found the book to be
missing out a little something to really get me hooked. The premise sounded
really interesting, but I felt let down by the lack of world building. In dystopian,
world building is kind of a big deal for me. If that part doesn’t work out in a
book, then the book itself falls flat for me. Then there is the fact that there
seems to be a little too much going on, making the book more than simply
dystopian.
Characterwise, I’m a little torn. Ren was
interesting, but there were some aspect of her personality that really put me
of. I liked her relationship with Aven, and found her to be a strong character
when it came down to the races and everything related to that. Yet, her
feelings for Derek put me off a little. The way she reacted to his
friend-who-happen-to-be-a-girl made me roll my eyes a few times. Despite those
moments, I did root for her, and I did like her. And yes, I did want her to end
up with Derek, because I did like him. I found him to be a really interesting
character, and I wanted to see him even more.
Overall, The Ward simply didn’t impress me enough
to love it. I felt a little let down by this book. The story failed to really
captivate me. I do have to give props to Jordana Frankel for managing to give
the readers a few really great twits I had not expected. I will still probably
give the sequel a shot (if only because the ending made me curious), but it won’t
be at the top of my reading pile.
About the Author
From GoodReads
Jordana Frankel is a Jersey native.
She's been a camp counselor, a salesperson
of diamonds, a hostess at a southwestern grill, an archivist of rare books, a
yoga instructor, and a reading teacher, but her shining moment was when she got
to hang out in Walmart for 12 hours a day as the AXE girl.
She received her B.A. in English from
Goucher College, graduated and then went to live in Italy for a year.
Afterwards she then went for her MFA in Poetry at Hollins University.
But then she graduated and she moved back
to NYC.
She got her first job at The Literary Group
International as a literary agency, where she'd started as an intern reading
queries and then assisted editorially. At Linn Prentis Literary, also a
literary agency, she handled foreign sales, picked up gems from unsolicited
mail, and helped authors through the publishing process. And then it was onto
The Book Report Network where she handled ads and promos for features on
Teenreads.com, Kidsreads.com, and GraphicNovelReporter.com.
