Little Miss Bookmark: Review: Alive by Scott Sigler

A young woman awakes trapped in an enclosed space. She has no idea who she is or how she got there. With only her instincts to guide her, she escapes her own confinement—and finds she’s not alone. She frees the others in the room and leads them into a corridor filled with the remains of a war long past. The farther these survivors travel, the worse are the horrors they confront. And as they slowly come to understand what this prison is, they realize that the worst and strangest possibilities they could have imagined don’t even come close to the truth.

At the beginning of my reviews I like to write a little summary of my own and let people know what the book is about but I'm doing something different this time. I'm not going to do that. I have good reasons ... the biggest reason being that any minute detail I give you could give away some of the important things that happen in the book, I don't want to spoil what I like to call First Read Magic. First Read Magic is that amazing feeling you get when you read a new book ... all of the excitement and suspense and first impressions of characters and just getting totally immersed in a new world. This isn't something that you can get back or do over, it only happens that once. This book is a big one with that. There are just too many surprises that you could figure out with just a little nudge and since I didn't have that, I don't want you to either!

Oh, and I think it needs to be said that I've tried reading science fiction novels and lately, I just can't get into them. I end up reading about halfway through and I just can't stay focused on it. I don't know why that is ... Alive is the first science fiction I've read (and enjoyed immensely) in over a year ... maybe longer. Just keep that in mind if you're on the fence about this one since everything written about it is so mysterious.

So ... anyway ... Scott Sigler. I've never had the opportunity to read anything by him previously. He is a trip. Well, his writing is, anyway. You know how with some authors you sit there and wonder what kind of person has THAT kind of mind to think some crap up? Sigler is one of those. There were many times when I was just sitting here with my Kindle in my hand wondering how in the hell he came up with this stuff. But you know what? As strange or out there I might have thought it to be, Sigler can sure weave a beautiful story. It's weird to think of a science fiction story being beautiful but it was. While I did find that there were some spots where it was a little too detailed, it was that way for a reason: you're entering this different world, you're looking through the eyes of a girl who woke up in a confined space and didn't know what was going on. It only makes sense that you (the reader) would also have to look at things in a different light since you're experiencing it for the first time along with this girl.

I enjoyed getting to know everyone in the novel. By the end, I felt that I really KNEW them. I knew what their motivations were, why they were the way they were and what their potential was for the future. Gosh ... I'm just skirting too closely to some things. So I'll stop there. I'll end by saying this: this book has been touted to be "in the vein of The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner" and I would completely agree with that. If you like sci-fi and you enjoyed even one of those three books, you will probably enjoy this one.

I was excited to find out that this is going to be a trilogy, the other two books following Alive are sure to be a trip. One I can't wait to go on!

* I received this book in exchange for writing an honest review *

Available: July 14th, 2015