Review: The Departed

The Departed: Book 1 of The Departed Series by Kristy Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Departed is such a great little read. You can complete it in no time at all and it’s super addictive.

The Departed takes a unique concept and builds up something much more than I’d anticipated it would. As soon as I read the synopsis, I knew it would be interesting; and yet, it turned out that the book offers more than I’d initially predicted.

People are disappearing. It’s a premise that many books have started with. Of course, the conspiracy theories will fly everywhere. Aliens. A virus. Magic. You know, it can go so many ways. With this one, we have the rapture. Or, at least, it appears as though we do. Very quickly, you find out such is not the case. Rather, people have created a fake rapture for a much larger reason. Of course, not all of the ins and outs are explained in this book – and I cannot wait to see where everything goes – but in this one we get to see a lot more about the reasoning than I’d initially anticipated.

We get to see quite a lot in this book, even though it’s such a short read. We get to see how people react to the news of the rapture – because, as you would expect, it’s merely the characters we are following who know the truth of the situation. We get to watch as people’s views are turned upside down, as people slowly question what it is they believe. Truthfully, I would have liked a little bit more from this aspect, yet I feel as though the second book promises such a thing. With this one, we get to see the initial big changes that happen with a bit of a glimpse into the smaller changes. We get to see some of the details of how the rapture was faked. What I mean by ‘some’ is that we get to understand the bigger picture, with the smaller aspects still being a mystery. I’m hoping the smaller questions I have will be answered in future books. Mostly importantly, we get to see what has happened to the missing people. I feel as though this aspect was over too quickly, and I’m super hopeful when it comes to receiving more details in the future books. I really enjoyed the small snippet I got to see, and I have high hopes that an extended amount of time viewing that aspect of the story will leave me super engaged.

Honestly, I could say so much, but I fear doing such a thing. The details of the story are so intricately woven, and I fear spoiling anything through saying too much. Just know it is a great little story, offering up a lot for such a simple premise.

The only real downside I had was with certain aspects of the writing. First up is the exclamation marks! Oh wow! There’s so many of them! Like, seriously! Lots and lots! Everyone is so excited! All of the time! I wish I was that excited! Okay, I’ll stop with the sarcasm now. Such is just how it felt to me. I’m someone who believes exclamation marks should be used rather sporadically. If they’re to be used, it’s because they’re truly necessary. With this one, it felt as though they were handed out too often. The other aspect is that the characters felt a little bit flat when there was action. As a whole, I had a lot of fun with the characters. However, whenever some action came about they all seemed to read the same. It simply saddened me – I had wanted a little bit more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. I’m super excited to see where the story goes from here.

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