Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines
Lyn is a neo-gladiator’s daughter, through and through. Her mother has made a career out of marrying into the high-profile world of televised blood sport, and the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association are second nature to their family. Always lend ineffable confidence to the gladiator. Remind him constantly of his victories. And most importantly: Never leave the stadium when your father is dying. The rules help the family survive, but rules—and the GSA—can also turn against you. When a gifted young fighter kills Lyn’s seventh father, he also captures Lyn’s dowry bracelet, which means she must marry him... …..(Goodreads)
Fight club meets Gladiator would be a good description of this book. The story, set to feel like a graphic novel or comic book with sentence structure and character dialog, clips along at a pretty fast pace, ends abruptly and everything happens so fast it almost felt like skimming through a screenplay for a movie.
In a dystopian future, blood sport streams live on global TV. Neo-gladiators are celebrities, and Lyn's mother Allison has made a career of marrying into gladiator stardom. But when Allison’s seventh husband Tommy is killed her career of trophy wife is up. Things are looking pretty bleak for Lyn as well, due to the fact that because of gladiator rules, she has to marry her last father's killer.
Did I like this…..well, yes and no. Yes because I loved the concept of the story and it had the potential of a fierce thrill ride. No because the story gains no ground- depth isn’t fully reached with Lyn, or any of the characters due to the pace of the novel. I felt Haines never flushed Lyn out as a character or fully connected her to her decisions. The back and forth of her swaying emotions could be due to the fact that she suffers MUCH loss in the book, and is trapped in a society she longs to get out of. The book for the pace ran actually slow with all the build up and when we finally get to the end it’s so intense and so abrupt you feel like you’ve been cheated.
The content is violent but not overly done, there’s only a few actual gladiator scenes and the premise would make you think Lyn was an arena (gladiator girl) which she’s not….she’s the child of a gladiator family being the daughter of not one, not two, but yes seven fathers. Lyn’s whole -in the arena -was a big disappointment for me. I feel the reviews out there comparing this to The Hunger Games are dead wrong. Lyn and Katniss are as different as night and day, and Katniss actually kicks some major a**.
Romance is a non-issue in this book, the stuff with Uber (the glad who killed Lyn’s 7th pops) was a tangled mass of not working. The scene when they first meet, I just didn’t get it. Maybe it was just me, but the locker room and first date action seemed off. Vague gladiator reverences to blood and severed members ride shotgun on this one, while romance curdles in the trunk. I felt the novel seeing to how it was marketed should have delivered more action and more time in the “Arena”. I mean yes we have an intense tiger moment and there is violence, just not as much as a gladiator movie or book would normally have. The story focuses much more on the serious elements in the book- which were the family dynamics, Lyn’s irresponsible mother, mental health and an out of control society obsessed with reality TV.
Sadly, this book is proof that sometimes excellent ideas shouldn’t be mixed together. Fight Club society doesn’t belong in ancient Rome. Swearing is moderate and there are no sex scenes- due to graphic content and subject matter I’d recommend this for 16 and up.
2.5/5 YA, Dystopian, Gladiators, Fighting
Part of my Dystopian reading challenge
I agree with your review. The lack of depth and direction made for a somewhat boring read. It had a great premise too, so I was definitely disappointed in the outcome.
ReplyDeleteNice honest review. I think I'll pass on this one..but I do like the cover :)
ReplyDeleteMy sister read this book, I wasn't interested, now I know why. Thanks for the great review!
ReplyDeleteI've heard this over and over again regarding this book, so it must be true. And it is such a shame because reading the synopsis about this book - really wanted to dive in. :( ♥ Parajunkee
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say, I adore yor blog's background and header- both so beautiful.
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