Book Review: POSSESSION by Elana Johnson

Possession (Possession #1)
Author: Elana Johnson
Publication Date: June 7, 2011
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre/Category: Young Adult, Dystopian

Summary on Goodreads:

Vi knows the Rule: Girls don't walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn...and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi's future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.

But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they're set on convincing Vi to become one of them...starting by brainwashing Zenn. Vi can't leave Zenn in the Thinkers' hands, but she's wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous--everything Zenn's not. Vi can't quite trust Jag and can't quite resist him, but she also can't give up on Zenn.

This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

My Thoughts:

Good girls don’t walk with boys. Even if they’re good boys—and Zenn is the best.

I know right? It’s intruiging… I was suddenly captivated just reading those first two lines of the book! But my favorite is this one:

Good girls don’t touch boys, not even good ones. And Jag wasn’t good.

And so I love love Jag! I bet you’ll love him too!

Vi, Jag, and Zenn are the three main characters in the story. Vi has always loved Zenn, her bestfriend, her protector, her partner in every rule breaking she does in Goodgrounds—her perfect match. And there’s Jag, the boy with the wicked hair (just like her), the boy from the Badlands, one who has always been bad (though not really), the boy she truly love and the only person who can fill the hole in her life. The boy she called Perfect. For Vi life has always been full of choices. Good or bad? Zenn or Jag? Duty or Death?

I’ve read a lot of Dystopian Novels and they never fail to captivate me. Maybe that’s the reason why I picked this book, and I wasn’t wrong. Elana Johnson knows how to engross a reader from beginning to end.

You can easily picture the world which the author created. It was too futuristic, and frightening as well. There are lots of high technology emphasis: from the Mechanic Robots (which acts like human), the high-end transmissions which the Thinkers used to brainwash and manipulate people, to the chips being inserted on your skin, the teleport rings (which I find interesting), the talking walls, the silencer (the one they used to silence people), the taser, and a lot more... But the most interesting to me are the characters who possess special talents, those who are able to control people using their minds and voices. Something I wasn’t expecting at all.

Well, there are actually lots of things I didn’t anticipated. Some surprised me and some annoyed me, but that didn’t stop me from reading it. Most of the times, I needed to re-read some parts of the book just to catch up and understand why the characters suddenly act this way, or act that way. Sometimes it's weird and I couldn't grasp the idea. There are still lots of questions in my mind right now that are left unanswered even after finishing the book (which I better not mention to avoid spoilers). Sometimes the events are little confusing, but nevertheless, I still enjoyed it. This book is thrilling and engrossing, it's easy to ignore those flaws and continue reading until I feel satisfied (which is hard because I can’t get enough of this book either!). I so love the twists in the story which makes it more enjoyable.

From the time I started reading Possession, I couldn’t put it down. I was so into it and the love triangle of Vi, Jag and Zenn is quite entertaining to me. I was so eager to know what would happen to them especially to Vi and Jag (and YES, I’m definitely Team Jag here!).

Though I love Jag and Vi together, I hate it when Vi sometimes becomes bossy and I hate it more when she calls Jag stupid (because he’s not!). She’s so upset all the time that I find her annoying. Thanks to Jag, he keeps me entertained! I bet you’ll gonna love him and you’ll miss him every minute he’s away. I can’t seem to get enough of those two… their conversations made my grin wider… and their arguments and teasing are always a hit to me. Blockbuster I might say.

I knew from the start that I’m off to a huge cliffhanger ending… but still, I didn’t expected this one. I am way too anxious to learn about the next book, which is some kind of torture, knowing you have to wait for months or a year to read it. I just hope that the sequel would be as good as this one (but not as confusing... I hope) so I could say that it's worth the wait.

I totally love it. A must read and I would definitely recommend it.

My Rating: