Far From the War by Jeffrey David Payne (review)

Book: Far From the War

Author: Jeffrey David Payne
Genre: Young adult, Dystopian

Release date: 17 September, 2011
Publisher: Roche Harbor Books
Pages: 378

Buy this book: Amazon

Rating: ****



Synopsis:

Esther Casey is 3000 miles away from home serving as a page in the United States House of Representatives when rogue politicians and military leaders stage a modern day coup d'etat. When the coup turns violent, she abandons Washington, D.C. for home and learns to survive on her own as transportation and financial networks fail, as the war disrupts food and water supplies. The result is a cautionary tale about political extremism and the true cost of war.

Review:

Okay so right now I'm trying to write a very serious review, but all I want to do is start running around screaming how much of an amazing book this is.

Far From the War is the first book in a trilogy of books about a modern day United States, that has found itself in the middle of a civil war. It tells the story of a seventeen year old girl named Esther, who gets an internship at the United States House of Representatives serving as a page, in hopes that one day she can become a part of politics. But with corrupt members of the government and military leaders who take over Washington D.C., the president takes matters into his own hands calling for peace or civil war. Esther finds herself in the middle, with nowhere to turn but her newly made friends, she must find her way back home to safety.

Esther as a character was very strong especially at times that seemed dire. Although at times i did feel like Esther wasn't your average seventeen year old, the book was in 3rd person which didn't help with this situation as you didn't really know what Esther was thinking. I found her very funny and sarcastic at times which is something I absolutely love in books, parts had me trying to stifle my laughter in public places which was extremely hard. There are other characters as you can guess there's Rachel who is your average rich girl who has a few secrets, Gwen who is a very gentle character in comparison to Rachel, Chad Esther's childhood friend and a lot more.

Now on to the part were I explain what i didn't like so much. The first 70 pages were mostly about the political side of the book, which was interesting but very confusing at the same time as I'm more attuned to how politics works here in the UK. I have to admit though that Jeffrey put a lot of time and research into this right down to the last detail, even though at times I couldn't full appreciate it. As i said before at times I felt as if Esther was a lot older than she actually was. Other than that i couldn't really fault this book it was so good!.

The best thing about this book was the fact that although it's a dystopian fiction, Jeffrey wrote this in such a way that it is believable. If you just take a look at the recent events in Libya, it becomes clear that something like this could actualy happen. I love the fact that Jeffrey didn't shy away from the brutalities of war, he just got straight to the point. While reading this book I felt a rush of emotions from sheer joy to absolute devastation, nearly every page just left my heart pounding with tears streaked down my eyes. Of course no young adult book should be left without romance, in this case the romance side gave the characters hope, and it added a very sweet side to this novel.

Overall Far From the War is the most realistic and most memorable story I have read so far in 2011. I think that everyone should give this a go, despite the fact that you may not have heard of Jeffrey David Payne before. If you want to know what I'm really thinking though, at this very moment I want to scream as the next book in the series doesn't come out till July 4th!. So as you can tell I will definitely purchase the next book in the series.

(Thanks to Roche Harbor Books for sending me a copy!)