VeganCleopatra

I really enjoy Aguirre's Sirantha Jax series so I was hopeful that this series would be a winner as well. Unfortunately Enclave matches up well with a lot of other YA novels in that they are not well done. Aguirre's writing style in this one is not poor by any means but it is dreadfully boring and I did not feel like it was written by an author I've read before and enjoyed. The content felt watered down and I cannot figure out if it was due to the target market (YA) or from lack of a story.

As I've found with other books, maybe I should begin reading the acknowledgements/information section from the author at the end before ever reading the book. Had I done so with Enclave I would have had a clearer idea of the world she was creating. The two page acknowledgements page contained more background information to the world in which Enclave takes place in TWO pages than I felt was given in the entire book. Aguirre speaks of her "research" which felt like somewhat of a slap in the face that she would spend so little time on her project. (Sure there was brainstorming and whatnot but the lack of research I believe caused failure in the book.)

The worldbuilding left me with many questions. What caused the apocalypse? Why is everyone afraid of the surface? Why has no one tried to repopulate the surface? Why is living underground considered beneficial? Why do they seem to have little to no knowledge of past generations and potential wisdom? How do they survive with the food they consume? Why has a breeding program of sorts been implemented? And how can they even carry a fetus to term with their diet? When Deuce is exposed to the sun after NEVER having seen it how is it that she would just need regular ol' sunglasses and only burn a little? WTF? Something is seriously wrong with this worldbuilding.

I should have been concerned when I noticed a quote on the cover noting that fans of the Hunger Games would enjoy the book. I don't know if they would because I was not a fan of that on myself. So disliking both books I suppose made the quote somewhat accurate! Overall, Enclave left me terribly bored and unimpressed. I certainly hope this writing is never reflected in Aguirre's adult series.