Review: Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Title: Salvage
Author: Alexandra Duncan
Series: n/a
Book #: 1
Pages: 520
Reading Level: YA
Book Rating: 
Goodreads Rating: 3.89
Published: April 1st, 2014

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean, in this thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

Taschima's POV:

Salvage was a surprisingly fantastic read! I mean when I read the summary I was interested, and the cover isn't half bad, but I didn't expect to like it this much, like reading for hours on end and only taking a break to eat liked it.This serious level of like is attributed to the story— it is fresh and unlike any other in the YA universe lately. It is an exciting read that will keep you up way past your bed time.

Ava is an outsider in her own ship. While she has lived in the Parastrata her whole life her grandfather came from the lowly planet Earth, therefore Ava has to work twice as hard to fit in due to her dark exotic looks. Everything was going well for Ava until the night before she was intended to marry, where one small mistake made out of love cost her her entire life. Betrayed and hunted Ava must run away to the last place she thinks she will be able to survive, Earth. With the help of a few true friends however Ava is able to escape the confines of the Parastrata ship and face a whole new set of obstacles in a world she barely even knows.

I loved how different Salvage is. It is refreshing and it deals with a lot of heavy issues. Out of the norm is the best way to describe Salvage. Ava is this barely there girl who does as she is said to do because she lives in this male dominated world aboard the Parastrata. In there the males are encouraged, and even expected, to take multiple wives, they get the coolest jobs (technological jobs for the most part), and they get to just be without looking over their shoulders. Ava buys into all of this of course, she was raised on the principles, but once she makes her escape and starts to learn about the real world her believes change right along with her. In Salvage there is a lot of character development that's for sure. I guess Ava is, at the end of the day, someone you learn to respect and really care for.

Of course not everything is perfect. For one thing the language can grate on your nerves. I know the author is trying to create her own world and the language is a part of that but instead of making me dive deeper into the world whenever a new phrase would pop up it would automatically snap me out of the reading trance. Infuriating? Yes, but you can learn how to live with it.

Salvage was a big project to take on for a debut author. It isn't simply about going on a straight forward journey and saving the world or a realm. It's more about going on a journey to find one's self worth, learning about the world and it's many faces and circumstances. And the ending? Was just perfect! I loved it, it tied everything up very nicely. As a stand alone novel it managed a lot, and made me interested in any future projects Alexandra Duncan might do.I recommend it wholeheartedly.