Kindle Price: | $7.99 |
Sold by: | Amazon.com Services LLC |
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Apprentice (Collective Underground Book 1) Kindle Edition
The Love Collective is everywhere.
It sees everything.
Be not afraid.
Apprentice Flick remembers everything, except the first five years of her life. And for as long as she can remember, Flick has wanted to enter the Elite Academy—home to the best, brightest, and most loyal members of the Love Collective government.
Flick's uncanny memory might get her there, too … even if it is the very thing that marks her as a freak. But frightening hallucinations start intruding into her days and threaten to bring down all she has worked so hard to accomplish. Why is she being hijacked by a stranger's nightmare over and over again?
Moving to the Elite Academy could give Flick the future she's always wanted. But her search for truth may lead to a danger she cannot escape.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateOctober 13, 2020
- File size1585 KB
Customers who bought this item also bought
Editorial Reviews
Review
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B08B44Z62C
- Publisher : Enclave Escape (October 13, 2020)
- Publication date : October 13, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 1585 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 247 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,857 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The handling of identity is fascinating in how the char struggles to understand how her memories (or hallucinations, for what she knows) define her.
That being said, I was a little overwhelmed by the large cast of characters. As I progressed, I could assign roles to them in my head (“Best Friend”, “Main Crush”) and follow the story with no problem, which feels like a missed opportunity. Fewer, deeper characters I think would have been more rewarding.
I understand the totalitarian regime over the characters is supposed to be talking down to its victims, but the titles “Hater” and “Lover” just feel goofy to me. I would have liked titles that sounded more prestigious or dangerous, but that’s just a preference.
To end on a high note, I really loved the VR scenes. It was reminiscent of games I’ve played in the past and it was fun to image playing the games in-almost-real life.
The lingo around Lovers/Haters, the Love Collective, etc. was a _tad_ bit ... cheesy? Corny? Lol--but also strangely prescient and relevant to current times.
I didn't at all see the ending coming, and I'm very curious to see how everything pans out in Book 2!
Apprentice is an intriguing dystopian story, sort of like Divergent and Hunger Games, but its cult-like Love Collective is unique. The author does a good job of world-building, showing what life in the Love Collective is like. For example, all Apprentices (students) in the Collective are taught "proper lexicon" (things you are allowed to say) and how to spot a Hater. Students are even taught to report others for being a supposed Hater.
One aspect of the author's writing I especially liked is how she interjected the main character Flick's memories (including date and location for each memory) into the story occasionally to give the reader a sense of how her memory works. I also enjoyed solving the mystery surrounding Flick's missing memories as well as the nightmarish hallucination that have started plaguing her.
The story is well-paced. Not too slow, but it's not really fast either. I immediately wanted to read Elite (book 2) when I finished Apprentice.
This is a clean read with no graphic violence, sex, or foul language.
An enjoyable clean YA dystopian read. 5 stars for me!
Reasons I enjoyed it?
* Loved the world building. I could envision this place. There were only a couple of settings used throughout the story, but I could picture the placement of every chair. I understood the rules of this place and why they existed.
* Really well-drawn protagonist. Kerr Flick is a girl of 15 who's been in a Love Collective "nursery" for the past ten years. Her conscious memories go back no further, but when she's asleep, her nightmares try to tell her about her past.
* Some good secondary characters--Dorm Leader Akela (interesting that her code name is Zed, which makes her a kind of collective in herself--everything from A to Z) is wonderfully enigmatic and ultra-cool.
* Nursery kids like Myk, Fedge, and Koah are well-done too. Myk and Fedge are Flick's avowed enemies (part of the Three Fists--I forget the other fist's name) and seize every opportunity to make her miserable. Koah is like Flick--always picked-on, always trying to escape her tormenters. Unlike Flick, though, she'll do anything to fit in--including joining the crowd of Flick-tormentors.
* At the Elite Academy, Flick actually does find friends, people who don't feel threatened by her phenomenal memory. Sif seems like the kind of friend I always wanted...up to a point anyway, but no spoilers. :)
Things I don't like quite as much:
* I'll take off half a star for the segment midway through the book when everyone suddenly gets "sullen." The word "sullen" is used several times in just a few pages, and I found myself wishing someone would get a thesaurus already.
* Same with "glare." It was spread more, which is good, but it occurred more too.
* I also wish the author had found better names for the opposing groups than "lovers" and "haters." I understand why she chose those terms, and they are eerily appropriate, but they're also used in such ways as to make one's eyebrows shoot into the stratosphere sometimes.
But that's piddly stuff, all the small-potatoes irritations are worth no more than one star when pooled together. The main thing is that it held my attention from the beginning to the end, to the point that I've already ordered the next book in the series. I want to know what happens next--and that's the highest compliment I can pay any author.
Young did an amazing job keeping up with all the details she had to considering Kerr Flick’s memory abilities. There were several twists and elements that I was not expecting, keeping me on my toes the whole book! The story is complex, and Young wrote it so well! So looking forward to picking up Elite and seeing how the story ends.😄
A true treasure of YA fiction, I recommend this compelling read to fans of science fiction, dystopias, and more.
Top reviews from other countries
I really enjoyed this debut novel from Kristen Young. The writing is really strong and the story had me engaged from the start. Kerr is a believable and sympathetic character and I really cared about her journey. There are some heart-stopping moments and I had to keep turning the pages. It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. I loved it every bit as much, if not more, than bestsellers like 'The Hunger Games' and 'Maze Runner'. It definitely deserves a wider audience.
Although some issues are resolved by the end, this is Book 1 of the Collective Underground series, so there is more ahead for these characters. Book 2 will be released shortly and I can't wait to read it.
If you like books like 'The Giver' and 'Divergent', you'll love this book.