Review Detail

Here's my problem with Empty: the sentence on the back goes as so "It was true -- the world had ended." This, along with the synopsis, led me to believe it had already happened. Not the case. So not the case. In fact, that's actually the second-to-last sentence in the book. And thus, I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen.

I suppose my intro was a bit misleading since that really wasn't my only problem.

Problem #2: NOBODY will acknowledge the gravity of the situation for a good 2/3 of the book. Everyone, including the president, just keeps going "Don't worry, it's impossible to run out of oil. Everything will get better." But it's not and it's right there in front of everyones' faces. Things have been getting steadily worse for years and now every country is running out of oil completely, blackouts are occurring, gas is up to $50 a gallon, grocery stores are running out of food and supplies -- and the list goes on. But what does everyone do? Nothing. They hide their heads in the sand and pretend it's not real. Now, I know this is a natural reaction for a lot of people but I just wanted someone to acknowledge the magnitude of the situation much sooner.

Problem #3: The romance element. I feel like you need to choose the story you want to tell most when in a book less than 200 pages. The romance was a bit too overdone, in my opinion. If it would have just been a straight Girl to Guy plot, that would have been fine, but instead, there's four different main people involved (2 guys, 2 girls) and there's this weird quadrangle going on. First Girl A likes Boy B then they have issues and Girl A likes Boy A and then they have issues and Girl A goes back to liking Boy B. Then we have Girl B who's just confused by it all and sort of likes Boy A, but sort of doesn't, then actually does. Sound confusing? Yeah, I was a bit confused as well, and I had all the facts.

Despite my issues, Empty was still a fairly good read. I really enjoyed the look at the future and the different ways to greenify the planet. I'm into that sort of thing, though, so that might've helped. I know some people get put off by this sort of eco-terror future (is that a thing?)

The Nutshell: I had quite a few issues with Empty, but I did enjoy the end message. In the end, though, there are plenty of other similar stories I'd recommend to someone first.

Miss