“Only He Can Bring What They Need to Survive. In the year
2250, water is scarce, and those who control it control everything.
Sixteen-year-old Luca has struggled with this truth, and what it means, his
entire life. As the son of the Deliverer, he will one day have to descend to
the underground Aquifer each year and negotiate with the reportedly ratlike
miners who harvest the world's fresh water. But he has learned the true control
rests with the Council aboveground, a group that has people following without hesitation,
and which has forbidden all emotion and art in the name of keeping the peace.
And this Council has broken his father's spirit, while also forcing Luca to
hide every feeling that rules his heart. But when Luca's father goes missing,
everything shifts. Luca is forced underground, and discovers secrets, lies, and
mysteries that cause him to reevaluate who he is and the world he serves.
Together with his friends and a very alluring girl, Luca seeks to free his
people and the Rats from the Council's control. But Luca's mission is not
without struggle and loss, as his desire to uncover the truth could have
greater consequences than he ever imagined.”
“Aquifer,” by Jonathan Friesen, was a fairly predictable future
dystopian society fantasy novel. Although there were a couple of things that
weren’t predictable from the very beginning, once the hints were there it was
easy to see the plot points coming. The beginning of the book was kind of
confusing, and I flipped through the first couple of chapters several times
trying to figure out who the different characters were and how they were
connected. I finally gave up and all the connections were revealed later in the
book, but the way it was set up was still confusing.
There was quite a bit of Christian symbolism, which I think
is fine for books like this, but then there were other parts where I couldn’t
tell if it was supposed to be literal or symbolic. An author should decide if
he is going to use religious comparisons or flat out have religion, but it gets
weird when both are used.
I also didn’t enjoy the end. It, too, was confusing. In
fact, when I set the book down, I even said, “Worst ending ever,” out loud.
The teen love story was sweet, the interconnections of the
people were good, and the lessons learned were relatable, but I felt the
overall book was too confusing to be enjoyable.
disclosure:
the publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book through
BookSneeze®.
