Control by Lydia Kang

★★★★☆
Cool Stuff

I did really enjoy this book - hence the 4 stars - so keep that in mind whilst reading this review, as I might seem a bit harsh at times.
Control follows the story of a girl named Zelia, set about 150 years into the future (I believe), after her dad is killed in an accident and her sister is separated from her.  She is taken into a place called Carus house, where she is told she will now live with several other teenagers around her age and Marka, their adoptive mother.  I should probably mention that these people (excluding Zelia) have certain traits - like superpowers that are part of their genetics.  I thought it was really cool how everything was explained and had a logical reason behind it, such as these traits and all the experimenting that Zelia does throughout the course of the book.  The main plot is Zelia trying to get her sister back, but uncovering some dark secrets about her father and other people on the way.
As a main character, I first thought that Zelia was quite boring.  However, as the story went on, I warmed up to her and her unique sense of humour.  The book also started slow, but really picked up about a third of the way through - which is when I found myself hooked.
I felt like the romance in the book was a little sudden, and one of the character's seemed to change completely within half a second, which was a little confusing and unrealistic.  Sometimes it was also overly dramatic (mentions of the significant other being like oxygen or water were a bit much).  Otherwise, the romance was pretty cute at times.
Another thing to add is that the "outside" world isn't developed very much in this book, but I believe it will be in the sequel, so I can forgive that.
My favourite characters were definitely Vera and Marka, and I hope to see more of them in the sequel, Catalyst.  I really enjoyed the pacing of the story and just how different everything was to the lives we have now - some of the inventions (yes, I'm talking about the holos) were amazing!

Overall, this book is probably more of a 3.5 to me :)

You can find out more about Control by clicking here - it will take you to the Goodreads page.  I'm also going to go into more detail, so if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now! :)







I found that this story was somewhat predictable at times - for example, I'm sure everyone would have figured out that Zelia had a trait before she did.  I also figured that Wilbert (was that his name?) was the betrayer.  I was expecting a betrayal, and Wilbert was the only one that could possibly be the traitor.  And of course the end where Cy sacrifices himself for Zelia and Dylia (such problems with pronouncing these names!).

Of course I have to mention that there were similarities to other stories - the scene getting ready for the club was very much like Clary and Isabelle getting ready for Magnus Bane's party.  Whilst a lot of people are saying Vera was exactly the same as Isabelle, I don't think that's true.  Vera is a lot less...mean - in my opinion.

I'm excited for the next book, so to me, that means that Control was a success! :)