Book Review: Pawn by Aimee Carter

Genre: Dystopian
Audience: Young Adult
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: November 26th, 2013


NOTE: I received the eARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! Aimee Carter has made a grandiose entrance into the dystopian genre! I liked her Goddess series well enough, but they were nothing like Pawn. This one is just incredibly new and fresh and entirely well done.

Pawn made me turn the pages lithely, being incapable to wait till the end arrived. I totally fell in love with the concept of the story and the characters. Especially Knox.

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting to like it all that much. Why? Well, some dystopians aren't realistic at all. But that's not true for Pawn.

From page one I was absorbed into this new post-catastrophe world, where people were classified in ranks depending on the results on a test they have to take at a certain age (16 or 17). If they ranked as a 1, they end up Elsewhere (and you wouldn't believe where that is). If they ranked as 2 they were used to do the worst jobs in society. 3's were okay. Everyone's dream was to rank 4 or above. But you had to be really smart to have a chance at such a rank.

Kitty Doe was smart. But she had dyslexia. She couldn't read, and her smarts were left unappreciated. Which is how she ended up in a brothel, where her virginity was auctioned. You may not believe it, but this was the turning point in this novel. Because Kitty was bought by the person who changed her life forever.

She wasn't Kitty anymore afterwards. Not really. Because she was allowed to see her world for what it really was - a place where one family manipulated everyone's life. A place where no one's life was valued. A place where one misstep could land you ... Elsewhere. A place of deceit, treachery and lack of hope.

Yet, it seemed to be in Kitty's hands that she change that world. She knew secrets that no one else was aware of. She was now an insider where people were rarely invited. She was also a danger to those in power, and she could be made to cooperate.

Because even in this horrible world, she had loved ones. Benji - her boyfriend, was the only person she could be blackmailed with. Being good at heart, smart in brains and incapable of bad decisions, Benji was the person who gave Kitty hope for a life without misery.

Knox on the other hand, was a leader, a traitor, a beautiful guy with a heart clothed in secrets. It's pointless to say that he won me over the moment Kitty met him. He was the bad boy (sort of), but he was following a good cause. And he pushed her buttons in the most thrilling way. Even she couldn't really see it.

The main point of this novel was that even a person without importance could make a difference when put in the right condition. Just like a pawn, when reaches the opposite side of the chessboard can turn into the most powerful chess piece.

In conclusion I'd like to say that no lover of dystopian novels will be left disappointed with Pawn.

My rating is