Review: Recoil

Recoil by Joanne Macgregor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read a couple of Joanne Macgregor’s books – Hushed and The Law of Tall Girls within her young adult contemporary books, along with The First Time I Died which is a thriller written as Jo Macgregor – and have enjoyed them all. Knowing there was another genre I could dive into, a dystopian tale, I was more than willing to give Recoil a read.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if The Rats by James Herbert was the basis for a dystopian novel? I do not simply mean the soft brush we were given in Domain, but an all-out dystopian approach the likes of which you find in the more recent dystopian novels. If you want to see such a novel, then Recoil is certainly worth grabbing. From the moment the dystopian world was explained, I could not help but think this was the way in which such a tale would play out – this was James Herbert’s The Rats crossed with young adult dystopian.

At first, I found Recoil was a little bit slow for my liking. It was enjoyable, I liked watching how everything was coming together, but I felt it was lacking in the action that usually makes these kinds of novels so hard hitting. Nevertheless, I was intrigued. As the story progressed, it became clear such an approach was important. Recoil has a solid basis, building upon many details, giving the story more layers than the standard ‘the government is bad because adults don’t understand’ approach you usually find in young adult dystopian. This depth makes the lower level of action worth it.

That is not to say the story is without action. The action does come, especially later in the book, but the real impact of Recoil comes in watching the way things grow throughout. Come the end of the book, you’re desperate for more. You’re curious to see how everything comes together, and the way things leave off will have you super eager to grab the next book.

Without a doubt, I’ll be diving into Refuse soon.

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