Review: Apocalypse Five

Apocalypse Five by Stacey Rourke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to Black Spot Books and Stacey Rourke for providing my with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy. Rating 3.5 stars.

In the future everything is hunky dory on earth but doomsday is near. Luckily we have military space force to thank for it. Not just any military force, but an army of children. They live on a starship and we follow their every movement on television. We see them train, eat, play and the highlight is when they are sent on fake missions. They are the celebrities of the future. Formed in groups of five, these kids are televised in brutal combat against humanoids. These missions are so intense that often real death occurs. Meet Apocalypse Five. Lauded as the heroes they are, they have survived together longer than any other group. Led by Detroit, a seventeen year old girl, they discover that not everything is as it seems. Betrayed by their own and labelled as rebels, they escape to earth to discover that the apocalypse has arrived and there are only a smattering of people left trying to survive. The team is determined to hold by their mission which has always been to protect the people of earth. Now they just have to find a way to survive themselves.

This was a great read. I loved the camaraderie of the group. It reminded me of the Avengers where they have friendly banter, undying loyalty, self sacrificing heroism and smouldering good looks all rolled up into one. There is the prerequisite romance that is very PG. The only part that weirded me out was that the twins were 13 years old! The romance is between older kids (seventeen) but still, any sort of romance, or thinking about how “sexy” their bodies are is weird when you are talking about children. The book is faced paced, with exciting things always happening and the plot moves forward making you want to keep reading. I loved the whole world that Rourke built, with the different factions on earth and the military world above. You have the exploitation on having them on TV and making their violent world glamorized. I had a couple of issues with it. One, the premise is a bit shaky. I won’t get into too much detail so as not to reveal any spoilers, but just the whole set up of where are all these kids coming from to be cadets seemed odd and I kept poking holes in it. But if you sort of leave it alone and just accept it and move on, the rest is well built. I also felt there were some writing issues. I thought it couldn’t have been tightened up and there were similar phrases that Rourke tends to use and it became repetitive. That being said, I still really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next book in the series.

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