Arclight by Josin L. McQuein

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Pages: 400pgs

The Story

No one crosses the wall of light . . . except for one girl who doesn't remember who she is, where she came from, or how she survived. A harrowing, powerful debut thriller about finding yourself and protecting your future—no matter how short and uncertain it may be. 

The Arclight is the last defense. The Fade can’t get in. Outside the Arclight’s border of high-powered beams is the Dark. And between the Light and the Dark is the Grey, a narrow, barren no-man’s-land. That’s where the rescue team finds Marina, a lone teenage girl with no memory of the horrors she faced or the family she lost. Marina is the only person who has ever survived an encounter with the Fade. She’s the first hope humanity has had in generations, but she could also be the catalyst for their final destruction. Because the Fade will stop at nothing to get her back. Marina knows it. Tobin, who’s determined to take his revenge on the Fade, knows it. Anne-Marie, who just wishes it were all over, knows it.

When one of the Fade infiltrates the Arclight and Marina recognizes it, she will begin to unlock secrets she didn’t even know she had. Who will Marina become? Who can she never be again?

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher on Edelweiss for accepting my request in reading this book early!

I was extremely excited to get the opportunity to read this book early because once I heard about the movie deal in the works and after reading all of the interesting-but-wonderful things about the book, I knew it sounded right up my alley. And it definitely was! Sure, on one hand, the book was a very strange one, but I loved that it was SO strange because I've honestly read nothing like it ever before and that's the best part about it I guess.

ARCLIGHT, in my opinion, is quite a hard book to describe to other readers (I will admit this) so I won't get into the major plot details of it except that it was such a refreshing book and makes such a great addition to the dystopian and sci-fi genre. It's quite perfect. I mean, the author should be really proud of her book. The concept of it all was just so original and so pretty darn complex for the most part, which I loved. It's the kind of book that plays with your mind constantly and much like with what the heroine was experiencing in her own memory loss, you too have no idea what's coming next for the characters nor do you have any idea of who to trust around you. Everything is a mystery and it's one of those grand appeals that I loved coming from this particular book.

As for the main heroine, I really, really loved Marina; for not knowing a single thing from her past and yet she is trying best to understand what's going on in her present time. So personally for me, Marina may not be physically strong but I still found her emotionally to be this very fierce and strong character, and she never whined about her life like most YA fictional girls do nowadays. She just accepted who she is (even if it's a mystery to her) and what has happened to her memory and took it all in. I really liked her for that. Even her 'sort of' love interest, Tobin, was a real pleasure to read about. He may not seem to like Marina at first - heck he seemed to even hate her for the beginning of the book since she is the cause of his father's death - but once you get to know Tobin and as he opens up more to Marina, I really started to admire him and how oddly protective he is over Marina. He was quite a little charmer if I do say so myself.

Overall, ARCLIGHT is something that you need to read for yourself to decide whether to like it or not. Or even love it. It's not the kind of book for everyone (for obvious reasons because it is strange) but I think once you take everything in, it's most definitely one of the most unique plots I have ever come across and I loved it to bits!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars