Book Review: Apocalypse Five

It seems like every book review I post lately starts with saying it’s long overdue, but it’s true! I’m so grateful I get sent so many books for my consideration, especially because I love reading and I hope to be a writer myself one day, but I get so backed up with books that I constantly have a pile to get through. So with that being said, this book review has been a long time coming haha.

Apocalypse Five is the first book in a new series Archive of the Fives, a dystopian novel of sorts. It reminds me a little of The Hunger Games and a little of Ender’s Game.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

The end of the world is coming. How or when, scientists can’t agree upon. For decades, Earth’s best line of defense has been a team of young soldiers known as the Apocalypse Five, forced into virtual reality simulations to train for Doom’s Day. But, this is no game. Death on the grid is brutally final and calls up the next in a long line of cadets. Stationed aboard the AT-1-NS Starship, the A5 are celebrities thrust into the limelight by a calling they didn’t choose. All it takes is one unscheduled mission, showing seventeen-year-old team leader Detroit a harsh and unfathomable reality, to shake the A5’s belief in all they thought they knew. After questioning people with the power to destroy them, the team is framed for a crime they didn’t commit and marked for death. Now, the hunt is on. Can the Apocalypse Five expose the truth the starship would kill to keep hidden? Or, will their bravery end in a public execution?

It’s hard to talk about this book without giving any spoilers, in short I really loved the book. I liked it a lot more than I anticipated which is infinitely better than having high hopes for a book only to be severely disappointed. I went in to it thinking okay, let’s see how this will be. It’s a dystopian YA novel; I’ll give it a go. And I really liked it and the characters. I actually got very invested in the characters! Whenever something bad happened I was legitimately upset!

What I can tell you about the book is that this group of teens, led by team leader Detroit, live on a space station type thing and are part of an elite, famous group called the A5. They are trained their whole lives to be the perfect soldiers. They can shoot, fight, they know science and engineering, etc. They go through practice drills for a potential apocalypse frequently, until something happens during one of Detroit’s solo missions that drives the team to run away and go to Earth – the place they’ve been protecting/training to protect this whole time. Or have they?

The writing is great and kept me captive the entire time, which made the book a very quick read. I could envision the whole story in my mind. I watched the Shawn Mendes “Senorita” music video shortly before beginning the book so the whole time I was reading I kept picturing him as the lead male character, Houston. If they ever make this book in to a movie, he should play him!

The book reminds me of The Hunger Games because there’s a leader who manipulates them and their every move is recorded and broadcast for the regular people to watch. They try to look good for sponsors too. It reminds me of Ender’s Game because everything they thought they were doing and fighting for/training for may actually be an illusion. …And that’s all I can say without giving too much away!

This book is just the first in a series and I cannot wait for the next book to come out!

*This book was sent to me complimentary, but all opinions are my own. This post also contains an affiliate link.*