The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Genre: Young Adult Sci-fi, Dystopia
ISBN: 978-0062220004
Source: Bought
Add it to Goodreads
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?
The Murder Complex is one of those books for me that I start and don’t want to leave the world too quickly so I put the book down just so I can revel in the wonder of it all. It’s dark, it’s gritty. It’s pretty wonderful.
I’m so glad that I finally finished this book but now that means reading The Death Code, its sequel and that means I’ve come to the ending of the series. I’m on a roll now so I’m excited to read the sequel very soon as it’s been on my shelf for some time now.
So what did I love about The Murder Complex? This book had just the right amount of all of the right elements for a dystopian and made it its own for the majority of the book. There were quite a handful of fantastic revelations throughout the book, especially towards the end. Great ending! But let me back up to the beginning…
I was able to emotionally connect to Meadow and her family as well as Zephyr and those closest to him and the people of this world. This story is told in dual POV between Meadow and Zephyr and it’s told flawlessly. Not only do the two have distinct voices but it’s oh so much fun watching their journeys in the beginning, both unaware of the other’s existence, and then seeing their journeys collide. Their reactions to each other and to their world because of each other now being present…oh, man. What a ride. This was great.
The imagery was absolutely stunning. Lindsay Cummings has such a way with words that you can see this world in your head so clearly. It’s beautiful. Speaking of beautiful, some lines took my breath away they were so poetic. I loved it.
The best part? The pacing was on point. There’s plenty of action and plenty of story and it all balances itself out and every action scene has a purpose and I never felt at any time that there was a murky middle. This is not easy to do!
My only criticism? After the halfway point, there were some tired tropes thrown into the mix and I did get The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner vibes towards the end which made me wrinkle my nose a bit. I do appreciate the way the author weaved the tropes into her story, into her world even if I think some could have been left out or executed with a bit more originality and the book would have been even more awesome. This in mind, I’m very interested in seeing what’s in store for the sequel.
After reading the last line of The Murder Complex, it’s clear. Lindsay Cummings knows how to tell a story. She knows how to tell a good story. So not only am I satisfied with this debut novel, I’m really excited to see what happens in the sequel so stay tuned for my review of The Death Code!
The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings and its sequel, The Death Code are available today.