Welcome to Refracted Light’s
blog tour stop!
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Thalli has fifteen minutes and twenty-three seconds left to live. The toxic gas that will complete her annihilation is invading her bloodstream. But she is not afraid. Thalli is different than others in The State. She feels things. She asks questions. And in the State, this is not tolerated. The Ten scientists who survived the nuclear war that destroyed the world above believe that emotion was at the core of what went wrong—and they have genetically removed it from the citizens they have since created. Thalli has kept her malformation secret from those who have monitored her for most of her life, but when she receives an ancient piece of music to record as her community’s assigned musician, she can no longer keep her emotions secreted away. Seen as a threat to the harmony of her Pod, Thalli is taken to the Scientists for immediate annihilation. But before that can happen, Berk—her former Pod mate who is being groomed as a Scientist—steps in and persuades the Scientists to keep Thalli alive as a test subject. The more time she spends in the Scientist’s Pod, the clearer it becomes that things are not as simple as she was programmed to believe. She hears stories of a Designer—stories that fill her mind with more questions: Who can she trust? What is this emotion called love? And what if she isn’t just an anomaly, but part of a greater design?
Seventeen-year-old Thalli has always known that she’s a little odd, that she doesn’t fit in the perfect world she’s been created for. Her world has suppressed, even tried to breed out, emotion. Love, faith, hope – these are all foreign and forbidden concepts. Expressing individuality is frowned upon, and all that matters is an individual’s usefulness and efficiency so that one may better serve the State. But Thalli feels too deeply, is too curious, always has questions, is never content to take things at face value. She hides these feelings and impulses the best she can from those who watch over her and instead plays them out through her music, because to reveal her anomalies would mean certain annihilation… until one day, she’s discovered. She’s taken from her Pod, placed under observation by the Scientists where she learns things about her world, about the way the world used to be, about faith, about love, about purpose, about trust, about the difference between surviving and truly living.
I loved Thalli’s gradual journey to self-awareness and faith. Her inner monologue is just beautiful, the way she sees everything from the perspective of a musician, and her analogies are gorgeous. Her musings and realizations are so heartfelt, and endearing, and poignant, and, though set in a world so unfamiliar to our own, very relevant.
The future McGee has created is terrifying in it’s emotionless quest for scientific pursuit, for efficiency, for perfection. She does a fantastic job with building this world throughout, fleshing it out and giving us a view of the horrors encountered when man plays God. It’s just a very well done, detailed world.
Now, I’ve hinted throughout the review, but feel like I should make mention that this book is very faith-based and would definitely fall under the umbrella of Christian fiction. I didn’t know that originally when I signed up for this blog tour, but since I share the basis of the author’s worldview, it was interesting to read something well-written from a Christian perspective. I just thought it worth mentioning since some people can be rather adverse to religious themes in novels. However, though I think the themes McGee incorporated into Anomaly are very important and very true, I feel like those parts of the book aren’t quite as strong and did come across feeling a little forced.
There were also a few things about the story – plot points and developmental things – that I had trouble taking seriously… which I can’t tell you about, because that’d just be spoilery. However, despite the few things I had issues with, Anomaly as a whole sucked me in and I flew through this book in an evening.
Other things I liked:
Berk. He’s pretty lovable, resourceful, genuine, compassionate, has a surprising sense of humor and is refreshingly… real. He’s tough, but he’s not indestructible.
Romance. This romance was intense, sweet and satisfying, but very clean. If I was rating it, it’d get a “G.” Seriously, Disney princesses get more action. And though it’s definitely a part of the story as Thalli is learning about what love is, it’s not an overwhelming part or the focus.
Overall. Anomaly is an intriguing, faith-based take on the dystopian genre, and I’m very interested in seeing what happens next in the series.
Author: Krista McGee
Title: Anomaly
Published: July 9th 2013 by Thomas Nelson Publishers
Format: 320 pages; Paperback & Ebook
Website: www.kristamcgeebooks.com
Source: review copy provided by publisher
My rating: 
Krista McGee’s passion to see teens excited about serving God is a driving force behind her novels. Ever since college when she spent a summer working at a youth camp, McGee knew she wanted to invest in teenagers. Since then she’s been involved in a variety of youth ministries and currently teaches at a Christian school in Tampa, FL. McGee broke into the writing world during her time in Spain. A friend encouraged her to submit an article to a Christian girls’ magazine, and it got published. Once her family moved back to Tampa, she got the idea for her first novel, First Date, a modern take of the story of Esther. Her subsequent books, Starring Me and Right Where I Belong, are based on Rebekah and Ruth. When Krista McGee isn’t living in fictional worlds of her own creation, she spends her days as a wife, mom, teacher and coffee snob.
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Hm, I love the conecpt of the book and it sound great – but I do have a big problem with too much churchy and cristiany things…
Well, as always I recommend giving it a try, but yeah, that’s why I mentioned it.
Thanks for stopping by, Danny!