Title: The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex #1)
Author: Lindsay Cummings
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
No. of pages: Kindle, 400
Publication Date: June 10, 2014
Date Read: May 14, 2019
Rating: 5/5
Synopsis:
Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.
The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?
Review:
Honestly, the main point of my writing this review is because I need to explode somewhere before I start the second book. The Murder Complex is a gripping, must-read. I first saw it on a friends bookstagram and thought it looked interesting. And the I read the summary and I was intrigued. And then I read it. Y’all. I could not get enough.
The Murder Complex takes place in a future society where all illnesses has been cured and you don’t die unless it’s of natural causes… or you’re killed. Obviously, the world is overpopulated and rations are low. Meadow is the daughter of a dead mother and a fisherman father. She’s bravely loyal to her family and because of this, she takes a train into the main city of the Everglades and fights to the death for a job. Zephyr is a Ward, an orphan. He works for the city, gathering the dead, and only truly has one friend in the world. He also sometimes wakes up with dead bodies in his wake or covered with blood and has no memory of what he has done. When Meadow and Zephyr meet due to unfortunate circumstances, she saves his life. What follows is a story that is a tangled web of more unfortunate circumstances, running for their lives, a tiny bit of romance, and hoping that above all else Zephyr doesn’t become a monster… again.
I absolutely LOVED this book. The pacing is great. The story is well written. The character development is amazing. I loved everything. I never wanted it to end. When it did end, I wrote this quick so I could get to the next one.
The world that Cummings has created one that is slightly reminiscent of Divergent. It’s one that it blocked in, away from everything else, and is actually one major experiment. Everyone is poor, but some are poorer than others. There aren’t factions, but everyone has a place in this world. One thing about this world that I thought was interesting is that out of everyone, the strongest seemed to be those that still cared and wasn’t hardened to the cruelties that surrounded them. Zephyr grieves for the lives he’s unknowingly taken. Meadow hopes and tries above all to keep her sister away from all the violence. Meadow’s brother, Koi, somehow made it out of the fight for a job alive because he couldn’t kill. These three, for some major examples, continued to fight, didn’t let their emotions overpower them, but they also didn’t neglect to feel.
I loved the character of Meadow. I think Meadow she’s an atypical character than from what we normally see in books. Normally, the girls start off as damsels in distress and then they learn and grow. Meadow started off strong right from the beginning. She knew she had to survive, whatever it took. And over the course of the book, she learns that she doesn’t have to do everything by herself and that it’s okay to let people help. She’s fiercely loyal to all those that truly seem to have the best interest for her at heart, even if she wants to kill them most of the time. She’s truly probably one of my new favorite book leads. Her counter-lead, Zephyr, is also probably one of my favorites. He’s a softy, but also will kill you but also couldn’t hurt a fly. Honestly, they both drew the short straw in life and truly they deserve all the best things that life can give them.
If you get a chance to read this book, READ IT. If you don’t know what to pick up next, PICK THIS ONE. If you’re thinking that you might not like it, well, your opinion is valid, but don’t make one until you actually read it. The Murder Complex was a super great read that I couldn’t put down. I read it in two-sitting and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I can’t wait to start the next one!!
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