Review: Season of Atchem

Season of Atchem by Jennifer Arntson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Season of Atchem is the first book in Jennifer Arntson’s Scavenger Girl series, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the second book. This first one has pulled me completely into the world, leaving me super excited to find out what comes next in this wonderful story.

Whilst the book is labelled as young adult fantasy, I believe such a thing does the book a real injustice. It is so much more than your standard young adult fantasy novel, offering more depth than you tend to see. This is not an attack on other young adult fantasy novels – I’m a big fan of the genre and am well aware of the many wonderful reads that can be found – but many of my recent young adult fantasy reads do pale in comparison to this one. In many ways, I feel as though this book is closer to adult fantasy. It’s the age of the main character that has given it the young adult label, when in reality it is a much more mature read. I do not mean this in the sense of the book having numerous explicit scenes to bump it into new adult or adult, as seems to be the trend in young adult fantasy as of late, rather I feel as though the depth and the messages sent are more in line with a more mature reader. Young adults can certainly enjoy it, yet the older readers should not shy away due to the young adult label.

What we’re given is a fabulous story, with so many layers and so much hidden depth. I could go on and on about each of the different elements, writing an extremely lengthy review that covers every single tiny details, but to do such a thing will fail to convey the wonderful way in which all the different elements of this story interact.

We’re given a new world to deal with, a rather dystopian society. As the story progresses, we get to see more and more about the world. Although we only get to see a small snippet of the entire world, we get to experience so much in this one. Moreover, there is so much promise about what we’ll get to see in the future books. I feel as though a lot of the things we were introduced to in this one will become more prevalent in the future books, and that we’ll get to experience so much more than we did in this first book.

We’re given a wonderful cast, multidimensional characters. At first, I was unsure about some of the characters, feeling as though they existed merely to add a certain element to the story, but as things move forward all of the characters grow and develop. Everyone had a role to play, everyone was important. Love or hate a character, you will come to enjoy the interactions. Not to mention, there are plenty of unknowns left at the end – things you’ll believe about characters but will be unsure about, things you’ll want to see, things you’ll hope will be avoided, and so much more.

Holding the world and cast together is a gripping storyline that introduces you to so much. It is clear this book is the first in the series, as there are many things introduced in this one. When so much is happening in a story, sometimes things can become a bit confusing – but such is not the case here. Everything flows so well, details being introduced and merging with what we already know. There are so many different elements to this story, guaranteeing something will pull you in.

My only disappointment was that I wanted a little bit more action. As I stated, this is the first book in the series and it does a lot of introducing, yet I feel as though it overshadowed the potential for action. There were many twists thrown in, lots of things are given, and I hope this means we’ll get even more action in the future books. This, of course, is just a personal preference – it’s a brilliant book without the action, yet I’m somewhat biased towards the action sequences.

Overall, this was a wonderful read. It is a brilliant debut book, and I cannot wait to see what comes next. It’s certainly a book that people need to pick up, a series I need to follow.

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