Enclave

I love reading post apocalyptic novels, and this series is one of the best I have read. I could easily rate this over The Hunger Games and many more less known novels. The imagination of the author is beautiful and I purely admire her writing. I absolutely fell in love with this trilogy. My teacher recommended it to me, so I'm passing it on and recommending whoever is reading this review to buy the book. It was full of adventure and action and has the perfect amount of love and drama. You'll fall in love with the characters and feel the emotions when something traumatic happens to them. The main character has so much personality you will want to meet her yourself. I know I did. I feel like this series should be produced into a movie but then I battle with the fear that the movie won't even mildly compare to this amazing book. I'm sad I read the entire series in 3 days but I'm happy I bought the books. I'm sure they'll be read many more times.

I have been reading ALOT of dystopian novels as of late and have been pleased with what I have found. I thoroughly enjoyed another strong female character, she can take care of herself but is likeable enough others are willing to help her too. The males characters are equally as interesting, Fade is a bit of the stereotrypical sensitive, emotionally damaged type; and Stalker is the brutish, unapologetic type. I was a little reluctant to pick this book up because of the zombie reference but I would say they are less zombie like and more like I Am Legend muttation references. I got a strong I Am Legend vibe from this book but in a good way. I look forward to the rest of the series when it comes out.

The Enclave is a fast pace horrifying view of the future. All the brats(what kids are called) go through the naming ceremony where they get assigned a name and a job(Builder, Breeder, or Hunter/Huntress). Girl15 named Deuce at the naming ceremony is chosen to be a Huntress. Her partner, Fade isn't from the Enclave. He was found at a young age wandering in the tunnels. The Enclave leaders decided to keep him because he was strong enough to survive on his own in the tunnels so they think he can be useful. But no one knows much about him. He is said to have been born Topside but no one believes that. Their job is to go into the tunnels and find food but there are freaks in the tunnels. The freaks are out to get any meat they can find. The freaks are mindless but at that the Enclave they are still barely making it between losing people to the freaks and dyeing of disease and starvation. The only thing keeping them alive is the delicate balance but Deuce and Fade find out that the freaks are starting to get smarter so what does that mean for everyone in the Enclave.

The characters in this book were great. Fade was aloof and mysterious but as the book goes on you get to learn more about him. Deuce is strong heroine that is selfless no matter what the cost. The plot was new and creative and it never left you never wanting to put the book it down.

The Enclave is a great read it will keep your attention and will leave you wanting more. This was a great start to the series and I can't want for the next book!

LOVED this book! It was exciting, had characters that pulled me in and created great visuals! I have read a ton of really good books this past year but this one had me as excited and wrapped up in the story as Hunger Games. But don't be fooled, it's a completely different story...the love of the characters and the fight for survival were there but a toatlly different story. I loved how there was a companion novella at the end that showed another side of the story from a different set of characters point of view. Can't wait to read the next one!

The underworld created was a world of young kids forced to grow up well before we are all used too. The teenagers where the middle aged and the wise elders were early 20's. The strict hierarchy kept these kids alive for a long time. I really enjoyed rooting for them as they struggled through their lives. I do not read much sci-fi but right after this I started looking for more books from Ann and look forward to next months release.

Colin

OK, so yeah this is another post-apocalyptic trilogy. So what? It's a fun read. This is a different, and much more believable, take on what might possibly happen when civilization falls. I'm on the last book as I write this and still thoroughly enjoying the ride. It's not going to win a Pulitzer but who cares? If you read for fun and enjoyment as I do you can't go wrong here.

If you enjoyed reading The Hunger Games trilogy, you will be even more impressed with Enclave by Ann Aguirre. The book opens with the naming ceremony of one of the main characters, Girl 15. The ceremony begins with Whitewall, the leader of the Underground world, telling Girl 15 that when he cuts her arm whatever naming gift the blood from her arm falls on will determine her name. The drops of blood fall on a playing card, the two of Spades, so ,therefore, her name will be Deuce and she will be a Huntress, a job she always knew she could do. She is assigned to train with Fade, a young man who had not been born in the tunnel. He was respected because he had survived Topside. When Fade met Deuce, she understood she would have to earn his respect. This begins the fascinating and sometimes frightening odyssey of these two young people who enter a world where only the strong survive and the beliefs of the Underground are challenged.

This book is fast paced and exciting. I loved the characters. Even the evil ones. The author made it easy to fall in love with the story and main characters and hate some of the evil characters. Some you don't find out aren't really out for everyones good like you think at first. The author describes the events and world so well, you can just picture it and put yourself and her characters there.

The day Deuce has been waiting for, her naming ceremony, has finally arrived.
In the underground enclave, you are destined to become a breeder, a builder, or a hunter.
Deuce has always wanted to be a huntress, and she has been training for the role as a brat.
As a hunttress, her roles are to feed the brats and other people of the enclave, and to protect them from the dangers around them. There are strange beings in the tunnels with them, some sort of undead creatures they have named the "freaks".

I enjoyed this book, and I will gladly read more of the series.(less)

I love everything about the book! This book is similar to divergent in the sense that in a dystopian world teenagers get assigned a job and name at the age of fifteen based on their skills. But the characters in this book are much better than that of Veronica Roth's "Divergent". The only parts some might perceive as boring are their long and endless walks. But much happens so you feel on the edge of your seat the entire time. I recommend this book to people who like dystopian novels with action, suspense, and a little bit of romance.

Really enjoyable and imaginative read. I would say this is YA fic but it still touched me and, yes, made me cry. I really loved the characters and cheered them on. The entities that are chasing the enclave are 'freaks' and were very well drawn and creepy, creepy, creepy.

I've already downloaded the second since I need to know where this story will take me.

Highly recommended!
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This is a post Apocalypse story about a girl born to an underground life with people who believed it was dangerous to go above ground. She is partners with a boy who was born above ground, but came to her people when he was young. Together they make their way through all kinds of trials and come out stronger. I can't wait to read the next book and see where they end up.

After reading a few of the reviews and the synopsis I was excited to read this book. The story line itself is not bad, an interesting take of a post-apocalyptic world. I liked the strength of the lead character, Deuce, which is a nice change from the low self-esteem, helpless characters in other novels. I debated between rating this two stars versus three, but in the end I give the author credit because I did keep reading. The first half of the book is great and the development of the characters and understanding of life underground is done well, however after this point the book gets a little repetitive with a common theme of never-ending hardship. This theme is fine for a post-apocalyptic novel however I felt like the author could have done a little more with the story but decided to give up and quickly end it. Unlike other books that end in this manner leave you wanting more I was simply left saying really that's it. So overall I would say you can read it, but it's not one of those "OH YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!"

This book absolutely blew my mind. I wasn't expecting to be so completely drawn into this dystopian world and held hostage by it. I couldn't put the book down and flew to the store to buy the next in the series when it was done. I devoured that book with the same hungry zeal. I am now desperately awaiting the next book in the series. The wait is hardly endurable.

Buy this book. You wont be sorry.

For what it is worth, Enclave far exceeds the current post-apocalypse books (Legend, Divergent etc) - but so far none of them have even come close to The Hunger Games. So that should tell you something. It was a really good read up until the crisis, which was a little underwhelming, as was the climax. But the story was engaging and fast and I liked the characters and the setting. I will read the second one.

Wonderful dystopian fiction. Ann Aguirre created a bizarre world filled with terror for the future and an array of rich, believable characters. Something I love about this genre is the resurgence of strong, capable heroines. These young women are wonderful role models, something we've needed for a long time. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style, the storyline was gripping, and I can't wait to begin the next book, Outpost.

Enclave is an amazing start to a wonderful series. Ann Aguirre made me feel like I was caves living underground and all I wanted to do was escape, but leaving is a death sentence.
If you love a good adventure, this series will take you on a long ride with a huntress who will never give up no matter what the odds.

At first, the world described in Enclave seems very primitive, with the members of Deuce's enclave subsisting on meat and mushrooms and using clubs as their weapon-of-choice. But as with any good dystopian novel, no society is as simple as it seems. Trained as a Huntress, Deuce is a tough-gritty heroine with a conscience; she alternately laments her hesitance to subscribe to a "survival of the fittest" mentality and wishes that comforting others came more naturally to her. Her struggles between blind obedience to a flawed society and facing the uncertainty - and danger - of the unknown are never dull. Deuce's partnership with Fade is carefully and compellingly developed. They're two very strong characters - both mentally and physically - that complement each other well, and I can't wait to see more of them in the sequel(s).

I love when books are unpredictable, when the introduction of a character or plot twist is not expected from the beginning. Enclave kept surprising me, especially once Deuce is exposed to the world outside her enclave. The side characters are also distinct in a flawed-but-likable way, and even those that are introduced in the latter half of the book ended up being some of my favourites.

Ann Aguirre has crafted a fully-realized dystopian world that at times feels both vast and very self-enclosed. Many of the pockets of civilization that have survived the apocalypse are brutal, and the book quickly expands on Deuce's small enclave setting. The zombie-like creatures - "Freaks" - that terrorize the tunnels near Deuce's home are suitably creepy, and their presence ensures some great action scenes. Hints pertaining to the geographical setting of the book are added at a perfect pace, revealing just enough information to pique readers' interest. The ending leaves plenty of unanswered questions and potential for further plot and character development, but also concludes at a satisfying point.

Enclave is a terrifyingly good read full of tense fight scenes, smidgens of romance, and an unflinching heroine that must struggle to survive in a well-built world fraught with danger.

Another the store suggestion which I'm glad I took. This series was inventive and engrossing, and Deuce was a strong heroine. More aimed at teens, I would think--more romance here than I needed--but I was still drawn in and had to read them all. I would recommend it even to adult readers who like this genre.

This was a great book with a really interesting premise. Underground society that survives the apocalypse was a new end of the world disaster twist that i found very entertaining. I liked how the author made it believe able and told some details of why the world went to hell. This book was a great read and for me, a book has to have a little romance to make it interesting and the author nailed it perfectly. Over all id give this books a 10!!

Wow, Ann Aguirre killed it with The Razorland Trilogy. I loved Enclave. It's a final book but it isn't rushed, has great pacing, makes you think and really delves into the characters, who are all so complex.

I adore YA fiction and this has to be one of my favorites of all time, it's seriously that good.

Looking for a book to fit into the Dystopian genre with the Hunger Games and Divergent? This series fits perfectly. I loved Duce and Fade. The symbolism used to describe what the world is like after an apocalypse and how the people that were surviving lived was perfect. Great start to this series!

LOVED this series. I actually liked it much better than the Divergent series and hope that they make movies out of these books. I'm so glad I gave it a try despite some of the low reviews. Unlike some, I did not find Deuce or Stalker to be unsympathetic characters. This first book shows you how they were raised. The next two books show how they change and grow as they learn from new experiences.

Good story, good characters, a little romance ; what more could you ask for? I loved how believable everything was, the author definitely did her research. When I look for a book to read I want a strong lead, creative and imaginative story line with a love story on the side, this book had it all, thanks Ann for the adventure!

3.5 Stars.
Ann Aguirre has managed to put together an intriguing post-apocalyptic world. I like how she was inspired by the Mole People that lived in the underground tunnels of New York. In her world a great disaster has happened and everyone is evacuated from New York (or so the rest of the world thinks). Instead some of the poor have been left behind. Some of the poor retreated into the underground tunnels and formed the Enclave. The Enclave is just one of many "towns" in the underground tunnels. They have their own set of rules that create a "perfect" society. In this society brats are unnamed. If they survive until 15 they are given a naming ceremony where they bleed on a pile of scavenged objects. Where ever their blood first falls is what they are named.

Our heroine is named Deuce. She has chosen and was picked to be a Huntress. It is her responsibility along with other hunters to bring back food to the Enclave. Any, ANY infraction in the community will get you sent on the long walk. You are exiled and left for dead among the tunnels and "zombies."

As the book description leads you to believe Deuce and her hunting partner, Fade, are both exiled. They decide to leave the tunnels where Deuce sees that there still is a world living above ground. As they fight gangs and "zombies" while trying to head North hoping to find the people who original left the city, they learn more about themselves.

Ann's version of "zombies" is an interesting one. They are like zombies as in they like to eat flesh, they swarm, etc...but they also have very sharp teeth and claws. They also bleed and can be killed just like you and me. I do not believe them to be true zombies, but they are a fun foe nonetheless.

The story itself is a bit of a slow one, even though the reading is fast. Overall, I liked the book and plan on reading further into the series.

This review and others can be found on my blog.

For someone who does not read that often, I really enjoyed "Enclave." I was assigned to read this book in class, and was very skeptical to read it at first. It does have a great storyline that is filled with loads of action packed chapters, but it could have been written a little more maturely.

In this post-apocalyptic story, a girl who once had an unquestionable loyalty to the elders who ruled her underground home begins to question everything, begins to question whether the elders are really working for the benefit of everyone, after she is paired with Fade, the only person in the underground enclave who is from Topside. No one knows who Fade really is or anything about his past, but Deuce begins to chip away at him. As they together begin to seriously question the good of the elders, they get themselves into grave danger and have to learn to survive against Freaks, monsters who eat any fresh meat they can find (including humans), starvation, gangsters from Topside and everything else you can imagine.
This is a great story you can't miss - I absolutely loved it!

I enjoyed the book, even though the writing was a bit spotty. I know the book is intended for young adults, but it seems like the writing could be a bit less simplistic.

Definitely good enough to keep on going with the series.

I was hesitant to pick up "Enclave" after having a streak of bad luck trying to find new books to read. I was pleasently surprised to find that this book was a thriller! Between spine chillng descriptions of how the Elders treated the lesser people to the courage of our heroine I was hooked. A must read for any dystopian fans out there!

I enjoy dystopian stories, and was pleased to find this engaging. The lack of setup and explanation of the apocalypse backstory made for an interesting approach - you discover clues about what happened as the protagonists do. The main character is relatable although not particularly inspiring, and the fight scenes are a little lackluster. But overall the story covered decent ground in the first book and I'm interested enough to try the next one.

Unique twist on the dystopia storyline. I fell in love with both the main characters in this story. Interesting concept for how society could deal with an end of civilization as we know it. I would highly recommend. Cannot wait to see what happens next.

I absolutely loved this series. From start to finish, it was always a good read. I am glad that there was three books to this series so I didn't have to come to the end so quickly. Was able to not only capture my attention but left me wanting just one more!

I enjoyed this story and the trials of the characters. My chief complaint is there was hardly any description at all, so the book felt as if set in three generic places, black tunnels, gray city, and an outpost. Not much to feed the imagination.

I really enjoyed the book. I thought that the take on what post apocalyptic life would be like was rather interesting, and fresh. I do think the story could've been developed a bit more, but for what it was, it was a very good read.

I obviously could not put this book down. The storyline was unique in that is takes place in a fantastic setting while grounding itself in the known. Though the character development was a bit chappy at times, I did grow to connect with the main characters. Its a short read (obviously) but a good one.

Very different take on a post apocalyptic world! Things happened a little fast for me and sometimes time periods jumped all over the place but overall a very good read. Plan on reading the others! interested in where Duece will end up nextt

This book starts of just slow enough that it catches you and you have to keep reading to see what happens. Then once you are into it, you just can't stop till your done. It's a horrifing look at what the future could hold. Can't wait to read the next book, Outpost.

I read this book based on the recommendation of a friend and was NOT disappointed!  The comparisons to Hunger Games and Divergent are really not  warranted for any reason apart from being the same genre.  This plot line stands upon its own merit.  The only reason I didn't give it full stars was that the character development could have been stronger.  Really looking forward to the next one!

Really recommend this series of books. Takes Hunger Games and Divergent into a totally different direction. Had lots of late nights, because it was I'll just read one more chapter. Next thing I know it is midnight.

I absolutely love this book! It is perfect for anyone above the age of ten probably. It is a romance/action/adventure packed story. The reason I wrote that it should be for ages 10+ is because a lot of death occurs. Aside from that, it is perfect for just about any reader. (Don't forget to take a look at the last two books in the series.)

Before I actually write about Enclave, I wanted to let others know how/why I read--it is germane to the review, I promise. I am an adult and avid reader of romance, mystery/suspense, crime, science fiction, and young adult. I also write fiction, though I haven't pursued publishing (yet!). I'd taken a science fiction literature survey course upon returning to college (at the age of 43) and the focus of the class was utopian vs. dystopian literature. I also read a lot of YA to make recommendations to and to discuss with my teenaged daughters (also avid readers).

I discovered Ann Aguirre's writing through the Grimspace series and was very excited to see she had a dystopian YA coming out as it checked off a lot of marks in what I've been reading/writing/researching. I came away with mixed feelings about Enclave. I liked Deuce, but I thought that the story both rushed and dragged. As a reader, I think I would have been more satisfied had there been more development/exploration in the underground life. For me, the entire book could have taken place below ground (similar in structure to Maria V. Snyder's Inside Out) leaving discovery of the outside world to a second novel. At the same time, there were sections starting in about the middle of the book through to the end in which the scenes just dragged in pacing.

It isn't all bad. Stepping out of my adult viewpoint and putting on a teenager's hat, I can see it would be an interesting read, especially if the reader hasn't discovered Snyder's Inside Out/Outside In books, Ally Condie's first two books in her Matched trilogy, or Veronica Roth's Divergent. All of these deal with dystopian YA, but against which, in my opinion, Enclave can't stand up.

Even so, if a second Deuce book comes out, I will read it--I felt like there was a lot more to discover in her world.

A decent, entertaining read. I felt the author over-compensated at times...using flowery words and trying to be too descriptive. At other times, she didn't provide enough explanation about the characters motives and feelings. But overall, it was a good, quick read. I will mostly like read the sequel when it comes out in September.

Good first book and leaves you wanting to continue with the story. Duece and Fade are good characters. Both are honorable and likable. I am glad to know of Thimble and Stone and was thrilled for that add at the end.

I actually enjoyed the book although some parts were a bit slow at starting it all went well. I also really like how the author tied in the use of books as a way to recall what happened in the past when so much was forgotten. I would also say that the characters were built well.

Ann Aquirre is an author who really keeps you turning pages. Some of Deuce's actions seem a little immature and animal-like but once you get to know the circumstances of her life, they make sense. Grade A.

This book was full of great characters and a complex dystopian society, yet towards the end, there was hope and ... Then it ended. I enjoyed the journey however and would be Interested in continuing the adventure.

I bought this book because of the recommendation from the store, it was worth the buy.If your into the whole Sci Fi phases currently with the Dystopian books this one is definitely for you. The Freaks in the book are very similar to the ones in I Am Legend. Much more action than other books in the theme. I enjoyed it most because of how unpredictable it was. Looking foward to the second book.

Sorry for the typos typing on a South American keyboard is not easy for me!

I liked the story but some of the characters where inconsistent. For instance, Fade seemed backward and withdrawn at times and perfectly normal at others. My favorite character was Deuce. She was a survivor, uneducated but smart in the art of fighting,staying alive, and reading other people.

Capturing ones mind is always a telling sign of a good book. Strong characters carry you through the book. Both males nod females are represented equally...questioning their elders brought them hope in the end.