Title: Halo
Author: Frankie Rose
Synopsis: She has no name. She has her knives. Her training. Her halo. The first and second give her the ability to defeat the opponents she is pitted against each month. The third frees her from pain and fear. From any kind of emotion at all. Everything is as it should be. Everything is as it should be, until… Fear… Pain… Anger… Happiness… Desire… Guilt… Love. When a newly named Kit escapes the Sanctuary after killing her best friend, the last thing she needs is another knife in her hand. Or Ryka, the damaged, beautiful blond boy, whom she refuses to let save her. The sights and sounds of Freetown are new, yet one thing is familiar: the matches. The only difference? Where the blood in the Sanctuary landed only on the Colosseum floor, Kit will quickly learn that a river of red runs through Freetown’s very streets. Without her halo, the inhabitants of Kit’s new home consider her saved, but is that really the case? The reality of her old life is paralyzing. Would she be better off free of the guilt associated with all the blood on her hands, or is the love of one boy worth living through all the pain? Raksha is the call of the dead. It is the rumbling chant for fresh blood from the other side, the demand for sacrifice. The Colosseum is behind Kit. The fighting pits await. Warning: due to graphic content, Raksha is suitable for readers 16 yrs and up.(Goodreads)
This review has been one of the difficult ones, I´ve been having a book hangover and had so many feelings colliding between them that I didn´t know how to put them on paper. Halo was PERFECT and I am not saying it lightly. Seriously, this book made me feel a lot of emotions, anger, love, grief, laugh...
Frankie Rose has been able to create a beautifully cruel world to set Kit´s story. This dystopian novel is completely unique. Almost every dystopian book I´ve read is centered in what happened to the world to end like that and I love that Halo is focused on the present. Yes there is some slight explanation about what happenned but they don´t live in what happen, they struggle to forge a better future.
The book setting is wonderfully cruel, it has traces of slavery, gladiators and religious fanatism. I loved every minute of Halo and had a difficult time leaving the story behind, it stayed with me for months after. Its characters´hunted me, begging me to keep reading their story and I have to day that I can´t wait to read Radicals once and for all.
I fell in love with Cai from the very beginning and later on Ryka won my heart too. I would love to read a short novella from Cai´s point of view, I cried so much for him! And Kit is the perfect main character, she is amazing, strong, fiercely protective and unique. Once of the best main characters I´ve read in a very long time!
In less than a week I´ll be meeting the author at a London book signing and I am beyond exicted for the chance!
If you love reading dystopian books you should definitely check it out, you will love every word, every feeling!
