Review: The 100 (The Hundred #1) by Kass Morgan

How far will you go for love and survival?

Series: The Hundred
Tittle: The 100
Author: Kass Morgan
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
My ratings: 3 out of 5 stars
Released: 29th August 2013
T he 100 was not a book I had heard before the series was telecasted. The show is addictive and I was hooked from the first episode. The premise, cinematography and special effects were top notch. So to satisfy my curiosity I picked up this book and did a read along with a few of my fellow UK book Bloggers.


As I read The 100 after I saw the series, this review will be full of spoilers and the TV series.

Clarke is a juvenile prisoner awaiting a retrial but suddenly she is shipped off on a drop ship to Earth. See, Earth is inhabitable since a century and the last of the human race are living on a spaceship called The Ark in space. Clarke and 99 other juvenile prisoners will be the first humans in earth in a century  If they prove that Earth is habitable for human, more will soon follow. The story is told my many characters. The four main characters are Clarke, the daughter of the resident scientists, Wells, the son of the Chancellor, in love with Clarke, Bellamy, who is trying to protect his sister and Glass who manages to get away from the drop ship to save herself.

While the premise is promise, exciting even, the execution left something to be desired. There was so much potential with such a setting, the drama, the world building etc, but the story focused more on the relationships between the characters rather than action or mystery. To top it all the pint of view changed with each chapter and almost each chapter had a flashback. The flashback gave an insight to the characters and provided a background story for each, creating a connection but the changes were jarring and I wish the author had found a better way to integrate their back stories.

The TV series has cleverly only borrowed the premise and added it's own flavour and twists making the story more interesting. My favourite character and POV was Glass who wasn't even featured in the TV series. Her romance with Luke was sweet and the events towards the end of the book were sad and sweet. Bellamy was a little more mellow in the book but Wells felt as bland as ever.

Regardless, I enjoyed The 100 book, if not for the actually story but how differently it pans out from the TV series. I have the next book in the series, 21 days, which I'd be picking up soon.

This review is based on a review copy received from the publisher