The Fear Trials by Lindsay Cummings
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Genre: YA Dystopia
Source: Bought (Available as an E-book only for $1.99)
Add it to Goodreads
Meadow Woodson has been trained to survive. This is a prequel to The Murder Complex, by Lindsay Cummings, and it is set in a blood-soaked world where the murder rate is higher than the birth rate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.
Meadow Woodson’s father calls it The Fear Trials, and it is a rite of passage in their family. Meadow is up against her brother Koi. The Fear Trials will both harden her and make her brave. If Meadow wins, she will get a weapon of her own and the right to leave the Woodsons’ houseboat without her father or mother at her side. Set in the violent, complex, and mysterious world of The Murder Complex, and introducing Meadow Woodson—a teenage girl trained to survive no matter what the cost—and her family, who are together for the last time on their houseboat in the Florida Everglades.
The Murder Complex is one of my most anticipated reads of the year so I was beyond thrilled when it was announced that a prequel novella would be released just days before Lindsay Cummings’s debut. The Fear Trials is spectacular.
In The Fear Trials, we follow Meadow during the most intensive part of her training for the real world. A world in which they live in where the murder rate is higher than the birth rate and every single day and night, it’s kill or be killed. Talk about an intriguing concept! The Fear Trials is the ultimate test put on by her father who will go and does go so far as to make sure his daughters and son hate him if it means they’ll live. Meadow’s ability to move through fear is tested. Her brother, Koi’s ability to move past failure is tested. Their father puts on a brave face, a stern face to remind his children that tomorrow, even the rest of today is not promised. Their mother is detached in her own way as well. Everyone struggles with their reality differently, offering strengths and weaknesses to the family. Watching those strengths and weaknesses come to the surface, watching these strengths and weaknesses be tested, it’s such a thrill!
I love that Meadow desires so much to keep her humanity. She longs so badly for love, for peace, for friendship, for so many things. Not only does she fear what she’ll turn into as a murderer, but she learns the hard way why it’s so important in this life to sacrifice so many of the things that she longs for. First, she rises to the occasion to save herself and when that isn’t enough for her, she must fight to save the life of the person she loves most.
My father. “You hesitated. I told you not to.”
“It wasn’t my fault, someone pushed me!”
“Someone will always push you. You have to fight for your spot. Try it again.”
This novella, in such a short amount of time tackles expectations and consequences, failures and strengths, dreams and desires and what’s worth fighting for, the courage it takes to fight to survive, the danger that comes with action and inaction, and so much more. Meadow has so many choices to make, some under extreme pain, most through fear, so much of that is intertwined. Meadow witnesses and experiences firsthand what it means to live or die because of a moment of hesitation, because of a moment of passing over control. She’s been learning to become a survivor for her family but when put to the test, there are just some things Meadow has to face before truly seeing the severity of the situation. Before truly understanding that her life is worth so much more than she can ever comprehend. So is she willing to fight? That is the ultimate question. Boy was it fun and intense and nerve-racking finding out the answer!
I loved how well crafted every single character was. I felt for each and every one of them. The relationships were three dimensional as well and really pulled at my heart strings. I was blown away by all of the themes brought up in the story and how well they were interwoven into the story. This is a story about survival. Not what it means to survive but what it takes to want to survive and that was a refreshing story to read. The writing is beautiful. The story is fast paced and so fluid. The world is so easily visualized in my mind. I also must mention that I absolutely love the way each chapter begins and ends. It’s not easy to have a killer first line and a killer last line in every chapter but Lindsay nails it. And finally. That ending?! Wow. I was already extremely excited for The Murder Complex but I want it in my hands right this very second after that! Release day can’t come soon enough! Bravo.
The Fear Trials by Lindsay Cummings is available today. The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings releases June 10, 2014.