Top 10 finalist in Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO 2018They can take your house, your daughter, whatever they want.For Ariliah, life under the militarized Hulcondans is one of order and safety. Despite the soldiers’ ruthless policies, she trusts their judgment. They alone provide protection from the enemies lurking beyond the city wall.For her older sister, Rabreah, every glance from a Hulcondan is a … every glance from a Hulcondan is a threat. Though even a whisper against them is treason worthy of death, Rabreah is determined to end their tyranny. Joining an underground resistance is her only hope – until she realizes she doesn’t know the people she’s aligned herself with at all. Unsure who to trust but unable to back out, she must work alongside the attractive yet infuriating rebel leader who reminds her far too much of the soldiers she hates.
But with subversive posters appearing throughout the city and people dying on the blade of an unknown assailant, the sisters’ world begins to crumble.
And as the line between friend and enemy blurs, both girls must face the truth: everything is about to change.
Sowing is a gritty, slow burn spy thriller set in a dystopian world on the brink of war.
Perfect for fans of the characterization and political tension in Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes series, and Pierce Brown’s Red Rising saga.
This series is meant to be read in order.
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This was such a great book. The story drew me in and kept me drawn in throughout. I loved the storyline and characters and found both well written and developed. I would definitely recommend reading.
This is a fantastic read. This story grabbed me right from the start to the finish. The story building To me is well developed. And the Characters are brought out so well that I felt like I new the characters. This is definitely a must read.
Shauna Joesten
I can honestly say that I don’t think Angie Grigaliunas can write a book I will not love! Sowing, the first book in The Purification Era series clutched me tight, held on, and sent me reeling on more than one occasion. I lived & breathed with these characters through their fears, their courage, and their love.
Split between the perspectives of two very different sisters, you will be caught in the grip of the author’s masterful world-building as Rabreah & Ariliah navigate a world ruled by the formidable soldiers called Hulcondans. With an iron fist, these soldiers enforce laws that keep the people bound to them in fear. You cannot refuse them. You cannot fight them. If you do, you are a traitor who will suffer the consequences.
Only, defiant, courageous Rabreah has already done just that. At the tender age of fifteen, she refused to marry a ruthless, powerful man called Masrekah. And for the last three years, she’s lived with the consequences of rejecting a Hulcondan. Now, spurred by her hatred—seeing every Hulcondan the way she sees Lord Masrekah—she is desperate to join the underground resistance to tear down their regime and free herself and her sister from their reign of terror and tyranny.
Young Ariliah is the exact opposite of her older sister. Timid & compliant, she sees the Hulcondans as her saviors. The soldiers, the government, who will do whatever it takes to keep their city safe from the dreaded Itzalin and the terrorists wreaking havoc on their streets. As posters of rebellion rise in the night, fear and bloodshed clutch her city and Ariliah desperately clings to the belief that the Hulcondans will keep them safe.
This beautifully crafted, edge-of-your-seat tale will keep you guessing to the very end. You will doubt the villain’s true nature, cling to the hope for freedom alongside Rabreah, & be swept into the gentle beginnings of two riveting romances. If you love dark fantasy & young adult novels, you need this book!
I loved this book but for review proposes I’ll try to avoid spoilers as always, but I’m not sure I can completely as this one is a bit different and it does technically have several potential and some strong TW triggers, but then it’s a Dark Fantasy-Dystopian, so…some things are to be expected. I can think of several other books with similar topics and yet are well loved. So fair warning, yes there is violence and even abuse, talk of past traumas and new horrors unfolding as the story plays out. BUT there is also hope and redemption, friendship and teamwork, protection and learning, all with a thread of forgiveness and healing. And you know what? That seems to be a trend with the books I love, many of which, yes are fairly dark, but that’s not the point. The point is that the light shines brightest in the dark, and that even in the most hopeless of situations we are reminded to never give up, never loose hope.
Pros:
*Character Growth – Surprisingly, not that I didn’t expect it or that there was anything wrong with the process, but I wasn’t really a fan of either sister (our POVs) at first (Shame, I know XD) but I’ll explain. Again, spoilers so vague, but at the beginning we meet sisters Rabreah and Ariliah, Rab being the older of the two. She’s had an…an unfortunate past with of one of the other important characters, and someone with considerable power. Because of this an the abuse they face from their mother, she’s become something of a protector, fierce and broken all in the same breath. Of the two, I connected to her a bit first, I’m the oldest and also tend to be protective and untrusting so eh. But I still wasn’t convinced by her masks, and it wasn’t until she makes some friends and starts talking to her bestfriend, Edeliah, more that we start to see the true her.
It was just a little longer before I started to see the same with Ariliah, and surprisingly another of the characters we see more of as the story progresses. Both really helped the reader understand the other, and I was surprised by how this part unfolds but pleasantly so! Ariliah being more that a little bit of a wallflower through most of the first half, we also don’t get a feel for her until she finally starts realizing that something’s not right, and starts really looking at the people around her. I feel in her case, it was more of a ‘growning up’ and starting to come into womanhood, where she’s wised up some and not the child or weak girl she was before. Still sweet and cautious, but wiser? If Rabreah’s journey is about healing, Ariliah’s is too, but more in way of learning to trust herself and to not be pushed around in ways that are abusing and belittling but to learn to find inner strength?
*Humor *GASP!* – I’ll try not to be sarcastic here, ironic I know since a large part of the humor in this book is laced with dark humor and sarcastic remarks, with a dash or teasing ‘suggestions’ just to see how the other character reacts. (Oops! I…. XD) I loved this part all the more since this book is dark, I mean it’s war, or as close to it as it can be without the all out chaos, and that’s normally though of as poor taste to joke when talking about such things, but then, from personal opinion, plus actually knowing some soldiers and others who have lived similar or worse conditions? Humor saves lives! And I feel like the characters are doing exactly what citizens or soldiers stationed there would do, and I loved how it was woven throughout the story. More so as I wasn’t sure I’d catch or care for the humor of on the the characters until later, but I did and it really helped me understand their character and their other reactions as they spend more time in the limelight with one of the sisters!
Ariliah has a few similar moments, but is so…trusting and innocent still that the dark sarcasm tends to go over her head, as she’s takes everything seriously and would do anything to be obedient and would never show the disrespect of her sister toward the higher-ups, though it reverse it’s his response to remembering who he’s speaking to that I found amusing. From said character, that was a fun twist, and it’s funny since he’s use to Rab’s mouthiness, so seeing him with Ariliah is such a fun contrast!
*Pacing -I loved the pacing of this story, alternating between the girls’ daily lives and the action and danger that mounted in the town around them. We got to see enough of them at the start to get an idea of where they stood, both on the Hulcondan’s role in the city, and in their daily lives and relationships. This provided a good idea of what was happening overall, and made it easier later on to follow the struggle between the Hulcondan ‘rulers’ and the citizens who didn’t see eye-to-eye with the rules or leaders as a whole at times, some more so than others.
At first we switch nearly every other chapter between sisters’ POVs, but as we get deeper into the story, we get longer scenes, staying with one 2-3 chapters, then switching once the more intense or longer scenes end to see what the other was doing during that time. I loved this as it felt more logical and smoother to keep the longer scenes together, and not insist on switching the reader repeatedly in the middle of a scene, which tends to cause confusion and frustration when it happens. This story has several twists and a few of those especially were best read together and I feel this made the story much smoother as the chapters start to ‘bunch’ like this with a few in one POV before the switch as the action and danger rises and often something happens in one chapter, and we go to see the other sister is also hearing or realizing something similar as well, which really ties the two together between scenes and made it easy to read, and much harder to put down!
*World-Building/History – We stay in the one town, Totta, but I felt the setting and the talk about history and the world the story itself is set in was well introduced, if only this small part of it. Due to the story style and descriptions we get a fair idea of how the world, or at least this country, it ruled and the type of life many character can expect here.
We get mentions of the past war, and the relative peace that reigns as the story begins. We also get an idea of why things are as they are. The soldier ruled cities, the segregation and enslavement of Itzalians and mix-breeds, the lowered marriage age to 14 (previously 16), and some of the other rules like job placement and the marriage laws are explained as necessity and as we learn more about some of the other characters and how these laws have guided and affected their lives and futures, we realize that it makes sense, and that many of them are an attempt to keep peace and protect the people, even if some are more misguided than others, and some of the Hulcondan’s themselves aren’t gloving examples of heroes themselves, we do see that they are human, and that realization sets up a lot of the story’s perspective and tone.
*Relationships -Ha! I bet you were thinking the ‘romantic’ kind. Well there are a few slow-burns, but I’m not going to focus on them, you’ll have to read it yourself for those details! I do find it interesting and enjoyed the rich variety of relationships we get with just a few chapters and the perspective of two sisters in this first book! Yes, we’ll start with the bad.
Their mother is a shining example of how NOT to parent your children, but then again they are human just like us, and…things happen? Yeah, well what she does and how she treats her daughters is not at all acceptable, yet that light shines brightest in the darkness? Yeah, this is one of the founding things the really push the girls into the women we start to see peek though as the book progresses. Both desperately want away from their mother, yet due to past affronts Rabreah deeply fears men, and Arilah is led to believe she is unattractive to the point of taking any male interest as an insult of affirmation that she’s unappealing to all men based solely on her scrawny looks. In a city very much ruled by men (Hulcondan’s anyone?) this poses are rather large obstacle for both girls.
Friendships play a equally large part in their story, and maybe more of a role in their character growth. They learn fear, distrust, anger and so many other negative emotion, but it’s the positive interactions the really make their strength stand out and their character shine! Healing doesn’t even pose a possibility until their find inner strength that doesn’t include pain and fear but hope and joy, and once they taste the respect and understand that comes with true friendship, they both start to also see similar changes in other relationships, how they treat others and how they respond to people who mistreat them.
Cons:
*TW -Eh, how to write these without details? Okay, so clearly violence, abuse, talk of assault (and some choppy remembered flashbacks), torture (this one’s harder to explain, it was mostly mental, though there is a briefly mentioned scene at the beginning at one of the ‘gatherings’ as well.), slavery and genocide, death fights, murder of an infant, and family abuse.
*Intended Audience -This one goes with the other. While I enjoyed it, it’s much harder to recommend books like this due to all the potential triggering content and that not all teens are equal, this goes for readers as well, as it’s counted YA. I’d feel save considering this a NA in that it fits with that age group and intended reader, but as YA I’d only recommend it on case-by-case basis, and only to readers who I know are mentally able to handle the heavier topics and darker themes, and are more mature in their reactions and understanding, no need to scare or push these topics readers who just aren’t a good fit!
That said, after reading others that I’ve felt similar about, I consider this a NA Dark Fantasy-Dystopian, but feel free to let me know if you feel it’s better categorized otherwise!
OMG such a rollercoaster of a book! I was left wanting more of Rab, Ari, friends, and enemies!
Each character has their own distinguishing quirks, and the story sucks the reader right in. Eager to read more!