Unleashed by Liz Coley | Book Review

(Tor Maddox #1)

Published: May 1st 2015

Synopsis:

When sixteen-year old Torrance Olivia Maddox, self-confessed news junkie, figures out that the mysterious and deadly New Flu is being spread by dogs, she has one question—if the danger is that obvious to her, why hasn’t the government revealed the truth and taken action?

Her search for the answer will take her farther than she ever imagined. But then again, she never imagined that man’s best friend could become public enemy number one, that men in black might show up in her cozy suburban neighborhood, that she’d spend her sixteenth birthday as a teenaged runaway, and that her effort to save one dog would become a mission to save them all.

My Rating: 3.5/5 (Liked it)

Book Information

Publisher: LC Teen

Genre(s): Young-adult, thriller

Page Count: 306

Format: E-book

Note: I received a free digital copy of this book thanks to Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

Hi! Today I have for you a review on Unleashed, the first book in the Tor Maddox series by Liz Coley. To be quite honest, I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting from this book, but I’m happy to say whatever my expectations were, they were met. Unleashed is a fun, interesting book that all dog-lovers will find enjoyable!

Quick Summary

When man’s best friend are found to be the holders of the New Flu, a deadly virus that can be transmitted from dogs to humans, everyone is buying into the government’s propaganda—except for Torrance Olivia Maddox (AKA Tor), who discovers the truth before any other citizen. What started off as a fight to keep her dog turns into the ultimate battle to save all the dogs in the country before it’s too late.

Plot

The storyline is pretty unique to me, or at least, I haven’t read or heard of many books based on it. It’s relatively fast-paced, however I was expecting a bit more ‘thrilling’ action scenes, as this is, a thriller. Nonetheless, it was still a good plot. It did kind of take me a little bit of time to really get into the book, but once I did, especially near the middle and end, I was really immersed in the story, and I kept flipping pages because the plot/storyline had me hooked.

Characters

I really liked Tor, although she did come off as quite childish at times. Sometimes this bothers me, but this time it slipped my attention until after finishing the book. Tor isn’t your average girl. Where other girls are squealing about boys and wearing makeup, Tor watches the news and uses advanced vocabulary. She’s smart, loves animals, especially dogs, and stands up for what she believes in. Tor isn’t afraid to speak her mind, or act on what she thinks is right, and I really admired that throughout the book.

As far as other characters go, I felt like they weren’t as developed as Tor, but I still liked them. Rick Turner, the love interest, isn’t the best, but I did really like Tor’s friend Sasha, as he seems like a very mysterious character and is very likeable. I don’t want to give away and spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that!

Writing Style

The writing style was fairly easy to read, and made it simple to visualize what I was reading in my head, and I really enjoyed reading it! The writing style made the book lots of fun to read, and there was a kind of style to it that I can’t really name.

I floated above the ground, I spun in dizzy circles, I puddled at his feet, and somewhere in the background there was music playing.

Often there would be this prose to the writing, a slight poetic feel to it (not always though) but I wouldn’t notice it until afterwards. It kind of all slips on top of everything, since it’s so easy to read.

Overall…

A very interesting book involving conspiracy theories, virology, romance and dogs. If you like dogs, this would be a good pick for you, because not only does the whole book surround dogs and the flu they have gotten, the main character’s goal is to keep her dog, and all the other dogs, safe. So what could be better, if you’re a dog-lover? But even if you don’t like dogs, this book might still be a good pick because of the start of a forbidden romance, or the thriller aspect of the story. All in all, I liked this book, and if this seems like your thing, go for it!

Woof woof! Interested in eating this? Let’s hope you’ll find this unleashed somewhere!

-A