Name: Cindy Lee's review of Acid by Emma Pass
Item: Acid
Rating: 3
Author: Cindy Lee

Emma Pass

2113. In Jenna Strongâe(tm)s world, ACID âe" the most brutal, controlling police force in history âe" rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed âe" or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember. The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID âe" and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago.

Acid

Jeremy Cote

Cindy Lee

Read more of my reviews at Secrets of Lost Words.

Rating: C

ACID is a book I've been looking forward to. An ultimate brutal police force seems like something I would read. But I've been a bit disappointed.

ACID started out really strong. I couldn't stop myself from turning the pages to see what happens next. You meet the kickass heroine, Jenna Strong, and see her emotional turmoils and her determination to be strong and get out of the prison. But then, as we get more and more into the book, everything just got sorta "meh". I don't find myself all that excited anymore and began to read slower.

The characters were good. Jenna is a good heroine because she stays strong through any situation and protects those around her. Max Fisher is the love interest in this book. I thought he was a cute guy and was adorable. He really watches out for Jenna and tries to connect with her even though she makes it hard at times.

The ACID government stood out a lot as it is a really brutal police force. I wish we got more history on how the ACID came to be and why it's isolated from all the other countries. I wish we could learn more about the rebelling force, NAR, as well. I hope we get to see more history in the second book :)

There are two things I wish this could've had. One is that to keep the excitement level up. I found myself not as excited through the middle. It picked up toward the end but the middle part was a bit boring. The second thing is the romance. I wish there were more moments between Jenna and Max! But the book is more about Jenna getting some stuff done and kicking butts.

This books was really good but not exactly what I was looking for. Now it's down to the ultimate question: Will there be a sequel?

2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember. The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago.

ACID

Aimee

one of my all time favourite books. the author is such a lovely person and i adore her books. cannot reccomend more(ya!!!)

Kristen

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I've read over 50 books so far this year, and this one is definitely in the top ten. So good. So, so good.

Jenna Strong lives in a futuristic Britain controlled by a military-esque team called ACID. Their guns aren't turned on outside forces, however, but on their own citizens, whose every movement and activity is decided for them. If anyone acts out, or if ACID decide they don't like someone, that person is put in prison, which is where we first meet Jenna. She's tough, and she's a fighter, and even she admits she deserves to be in prison. So she's shocked when she's broken out by a mysterious group who gives her a new identity, inadvertently launching her on the run for her life, and the quest to reclaim it.

The best part about this book was there was always something happening. As soon as you think you know where the book is going, where Jenna is going, it changes. Suddenly, she's in a different situation (usually as a result of her admittedly stupid and impulsive decisions) and she has to work out a plan to get herself out.

Sometimes, it works.

Sometimes, it doesn't.

And what I love about this book is that no matter what, Jenna is determined to keep herself and her charge, Max, alive and safe. She fights against whatever is working against her, and it's really pretty inspiring to watch. It says a lot for the character Emma Pass created her to be.

I've seen a lot of reviews on here that claim Jenna is a Mary Sue, and really, if you see the textbook definition of a Mary Sue, you'll see Jenna couldn't be farther from one. She's always got some kind of fire burning in her, and a lot of times, it leads her into dangerous situations. The author uses her sometimes horrendously stupid decisions as a catalyst for the next plot point of the book. The level of entertainment I had while being inside Jenna's head reminded me of how I felt when I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. I was never sure if I liked Jenna or not, just like I was never sure if I liked Tris, and both characters made stupid, stupid mistakes that often led them to a point where they had to fight their way out of a difficult situation.

But there was an underlying message of strength and love for other people throughout both novels that made me adore both characters in the end. Despite their stupidity. Everyone makes mistakes, though, and I can forgive them both because of the courage they showed. 

Jenna never hesitated to help others, even though that consistently brought her into difficult and dangerous situations. That was a strong point to her character that I feel can't be ignored. She took Max in when she shouldn't have, thought about leaving him behind so ACID wouldn't find her, but she stayed with him and even nursed him back to health. She wouldn't even let ACID agents die, instead putting herself in danger in order to save them.

Now I'll talk a little about what didn't work for me as much.

Max. He's sick when Jenna first meets him, so she has to be his parent, almost. A baby sitter. He's a burden that she refuses to let go, which is actually really cool of her. I had no idea he was the love interest, although I can see where that came from, and I really wish the author had kept romance out of this novel. Or at least made Max a bit stronger when he recovered from his illness. As it is, Max is a year younger than Jenna but he acts about three years younger, about fourteen to her seventeen. It's not a pretty match at all, but that's just my opinion.

Other than that, the only problems were usually that the moments of high action were tamped down with too much description or too much time spent with Jenna thinking things through. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong, but I feel the story would have been so much more suspenseful and gripping if the author didn't try to overflow every action scene with beautiful imagery and an overload of Jenna's thoughts. It jolts the reader out of the suspense a little, even though Emma Pass's imagery was very lovely during the story's downtime. 

I still give it five stars, despite the trouble I had with it. It was a unique dystopian in a world becoming increasingly packed with Divergent, Matched, and Hunger Games knock-offs. I'm at my wit's end with dystopian. I feel like I've read them all before. While this one followed in a similar vein, it was just different enough that it kept me interested. I finished it in a couple of days, which is ridiculous since I really don't have any time I should be spending reading anymore.

Olivia

In the year 2113, seventeen-year-old Jenna Strong is helped to escape from Mileway Maximum Security Prison outside London in order to help destroy ACID, the most brutal and controlling police force in history.

Jeremy Cote &
Acid by Emma Pass

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