Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Enclave by Ann Aguirre ☆☆☆☆

I made it half way through this book before my first semester as a grad student killed me. Of course, the minute my last assignment was turned in I picked up the book again.

When I first read the cover jacket I wasn't really interested in the book. I bought it because I was reading a lot of dystopian fiction and it was highly recommended. Once I started reading it, I was pleasantly surprised. I quickly got sucked into the story line and didn't want to put the book down. The months that I had to leave it sitting because of other priorities left me wondering what the characters were doing while I was away. That's always a good sign of a book, when you start to lose touch with reality :)

I am not a lover of zombies, and this dystopian society did involve zombies (although they went by several different names that didn't include "zombie"). In fact, the only zombie book I have read made me write off zombie books in general until now. This was somehow more believable to me.

In all though, there were only two things I didn't like. The first was the ending. Had I not known there was a sequel in the works I would have been severely disappointed. The ending was left open too far for my liking. It reached a conclusion, but not a conclusion I would find viable for ending a book. I don't like movies with cliffhanger, or unsatisfying, endings and the same goes for books.

The second thing I didn't like was the "Author's Notes" at the end that explain all the details of how she constructed the book, including website links to go through her research process yourself. I like books that interact with the reader, where we actually have to give as much as the writer. I don't like having the research process laid out for me. It almost felt like "Look at me, I did research! I'm a great writer!" I won't say it wasn't interesting though. There was some good information that could be used for many post-apocalyptic stories that might come in handy, but it seemed a little too neat and clean for a book that left me with an unsatisfying ending.

Overall I really liked the book and I'm looking forward to the sequel.