Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Review: Children of Paranoia



My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Children of Paranoia” starts off with a stalking and a murder…which in itself is not unusual. I thought this murder would be the basis for the story. I was wrong! It was just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Joe is the murderer above, actually “trained assassin” would be a better title. Joe is a foot soldier in a war none of us know even exists. There are 3 rules of engagement for this war. 1) No killing of innocents. An innocent would be you or I who have no knowledge of this war. 2) No killing anyone under the age of 18. The children of those at war get a “free pass” until they turn 18 then all bets are off. 3) Give birth before 18 and your off-spring get turned over to the other side and thus become your enemy. Ouch! If that isn’t a good reason for birth control, I don’t know what is.

This was a riveting story told from Joe’s point of view. He’s actually writing his story in a journal for someone named Maria…who won’t become known to us for quite a while. Joe is sucked into this war, against an unnamed group, because they are responsible for killing virtually his whole family. We don’t know what started the war, or when. But if there are rules, than you can guess a few, if not all, are going to be broken. And if rules are broken, you might as well paint a big red bull’s eye on your back.

This was not my usual type of read…something about the blurb on Net Galley grabbed my attention, much like the rest of the book did. I was dying to find out what was going to happen to Joe, and was hoping we, the reader, would get some insight as to what prompted this war. It wasn’t until I finished the book that I found out this is just the first of a planned trilogy. The ending of Paranoia made it clear there would definitely be a second book at the very least.

The story was a roller coaster ride. I mean Joe is an assassin so there is some graphic violence, but then add to that the fact that you don’t know if the person standing next to you is friend or foe…hence the need for a healthy dose of paranoia which could keep you alive.




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