So many young adult futuristic dystopian books fall into the trap of making the world too similar to the present day. Mayfly by Jeff Sweat doesn't. Sweat creates a sprawling world out of crumbling Los Angeles--Ell Aye, in the book--and Hollywood, or Holy Wood. The young characters speak in a unique slang-heavy language but it's never clunky or forced. (It reminded me of the slang used in The Maze Runner in the naturalness of it.) The society that's been cobbled together over time has its own myths and legends and rules, all of which add to the richness of the world and make it even more plausible. The main characters are smart and navigate their society with ease. The pacing is fast and the mysteries are compounded as the plot progresses. Overall, Mayfly is a beautifully written story of a broken world that is at once familiar and yet completely alien. A must read for any fan of young adult science fiction and futuristic dystopian novels.

Interesting read. Good dystopian novel.

In this world, children die at 17. Adults have been gone for a long time and the children have learned to survive without them. This book follows Jemma and a few friends as they fight for survival and possibly information that could lead to loving past the age of 17.

I really did like this novel, it was the best dystopia I've read in a long time. Thanks for the copy!

I'm sad that I wasn't able to read this book, because it was too much at the same time. I guess that his book was amazing and I would love to try and read it.
Now i will have to buy one!

Jemma lives in a post-apocalyptic world where there are no adults. In fact, kids die when they turn 17--even earlier if they are of higher intelligence. Jemma and her peers have learned how to survive in a world without electricity by returning to the hunting/scavenging ways of their ancestors. The girls become Mamas as soon as they are old enough to get pregnant, and no one in the society can read anymore. Even language has deteriorated as time passes. When Jemma hears of a kid who has escaped the End and lived past 17, she and a few friends leave to try to solve the global problem of the End.

Mayfly started out as an interesting dystopia, but was ultimately very confusing. It look a long time to adjust to the California references like the Holy Wood (and I'm a former English teacher). Few kids will be able to make those connections. I like how Sweat tried to incorporate diversity, but I think it will be lost on many of the readers.

Summary sounded interesting, but I had a problem getting into it. Also, the formatting was wacky on my copy, and I had problems making sense of things. (Not sure if that is how the story truly is or if it was all due to technical issues.) As a result, I didn't finish it. What I did read was confusing, and it just didn't maintain my attention. Maybe I'll look for it in the library, but I'm not sure.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn't required to leave a positive review.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me and I had to dnf it.

I really couldn't get into the story and to be honest, I'm not curious enough to find out more about this weird society. Only the children survived somehow and since the characters are young, I felt like they didn't know much about what happened and therefore, I was a little confused. In Mayfly, the boys and girls are not equals and girls have to be "mamas" at 15. It's probably what I'm going to remember from what I've read.

I have questions, sure, but I really don't care enough for this world and the characters to read more, I'm sorry! Other readers will probably like it though!

This one was a little hard to read due to the speech patterns of the kids in some places. I was a little lost because I am not familiar with all the landmarks that were hinted at in the book. The premise for the book was very interesting. The story was fast-paced for the most part and ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. There is a rape in the book but it was not detailed. Overall I would read the next book in the series.

I really wanted to read this but the kindle formatting made it impossible to do so. Text changed four different sizes randomly throughout as well as words separated to other random parts of the page made it way too much work to continue reading.

This book 😱 it sucked me in!!!
This story pulled me in, and kept me wanting to read more. I caught myself binge reading. The story, the characters, the descriptions of the settings had me picturing myself right there. Can't wait for the next one.

I enjoyed this book very much. It was a unique twist on the post apocalyptic theme. The way the author used common everyday things that over time became renamed or shortened was interesting and the most holy TEEVEE really made an impact on the way I think about what our children are valuing.

Mayfly was about a group of teens living in a fictional Los Angeles where kids had to grow up quicker. 15 year old girls for instance become a mother at 15 because kids die at the age of 17. And in order to keep the population from decreasing, women were the baby makers. They were encouraged to bear children so humanity does not end. Then the boys would be “the muscles” or in charge of everything else. Hence this book sort of has a “sexist nature” since women aren’t seen as anything else except as a “baby maker.” It definitely was not fun reading the “rolling comments” in relation to sex. I get it, the reader gets it. At some point, I hoped it would stop.

While this story had strong world building, I unfortunately could not get into this book. I just didn’t have an overall good reading experience, or I did not enjoy reading this book. I found it to be slow and uninteresting. There were also some incidents that made me uncomfortable, like inappropriate comments. I did like Jemma as a character but I just wasn’t invested in reading her story along with the other characters. I guess, I just wasn't curious enough? I thought this book was just not for me.

At the same time, it was a bit difficult to read from the digital copy because it seemed like it didn’t fit in a page. There were some terms I couldn’t read because instead of words, I got random numbers instead. I’m not sure if my copy was corrupt. However, I eventually read from my computer so I was able to avoid some technical issues.

Anyway, I still want to thank the publisher and netgalley for allowing access to this title.

This book was AWESOME! I loved it!

It is set in a post apokoliptic world (yeah, I know that's not how you spell it. Read the book!), where there are no adults, and everyone dies when they turn 17. In Jemma's group, girls rule, boys are only kept around for necessities, and when a girl turns 15, she must become a Mama to help populate the next generation.

If you've read the Gone series by Michael Grant, which was also awesome, you might find a few similarities (minus all the talk about baby making). However, in Gone, the adults disappear in the first book, and the kids have to figure out how to live without them. In Mayfly, the adults have been gone for quite some time, and the kids have their own culture and systems set in place, with jobs for everyone, starting from a very young age. Also, everyone dies at 17, which is a total bummer! It also, as you might expect, leads to some interesting plot lines.

I ❤Jemma and Apple, but Pico is my favorite! Also even though this book touches on some pretty heavy topics (like rape), there is also humor sprinkled throughout the book.

This is Jeff Sweat's debut, and I can't wait to see what he does next. Hopefully, he writes a sequel, although there is no info on GoodReads about one, yet. 😞

I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a unique take on a YA dystopian book. In this world, all the adults are gone. You die at 17 and the only way to keep the population going is to have babies around 15. I thought it was interesting to see a book from a the view of a world run by kids pretty much. It's been over 100 years since the parents died we learn. Which means somewhere around 9 or 10 generations have now passed with the children ruling everything. And we really get to realistically see how that has affected things. We see a lot of language loss. You kinda have to get used to the language they use in this because its not completely what we use. A lot of words are simplified down or changed. Instead of Hollywood, it's been simplified to Holy Wood. Instead of LA (Los Angeles), it's now Ell Aye. Words we think are pretty normal and simple are hard to pronounce or just aren't used, such as scientist, or motorcycle (which is mocycle now). This is definitely in part because of the fact no one learns to read anymore. This breakdown of language is something that really could happen over a period of time like this.

There's also the fact that if your brain matures into adult thinking earlier than 17, it can kill you sooner. It's hard to live in a world that being smart or growing up kills you. The only people that seem to live longer are those that get brain damage and their brain stops maturing. Because of this, people seem bent on survival. Everything in the Holy Wood is about "rolling with boys" aka sex and making babies so people live on. Even if some of the girls don't want to, they are heavily persuaded into it for population reasons. This type of thinking has taken over so much that the girls are in charge and literally keep boys around mostly for being dads. If they try to do anything that seems like they are trying to get too much power, they are killed or exiled. What's even worse is that the girls in charge also will let some boys get away with rape if it means another baby. And in other groups in Ell Aye, some of the people have just let survival and the madness over dying take over that they no longer think straight. Things have just gone to hell and these kids don't know how to do anything but survive until they die.

I definitely grew attached to our characters. I really loved Jemma and Apple. I loved the relationship these two had. Love is pretty much a thing of the past since making babies is more important, but these two managed to find it in all the chaos. I also genuinely liked Lady. She annoyed me at first just constantly obsessing over "rolling" and wanting to be a mama. And even trying to go back to the Holy Wood after what happened to her there and knowing she didn't have people to turn to after it. But I started liking her more when she tried going back, leaving Jemma and Apple and then realizing she had nothing to go back to. She realized the people she cared about weren't in Holy Wood, they were right beside her getting out of that place and protecting her. She started acting a bit smarter, wanting to help get further away and wanting to find out more about "the end" and what caused it. She starts thinking more about if they can find a way to live past it and less about rolling and making babies. I also liked "Teek," the exile. He was willing to show and use his intelligence if it meant finding a way to try and live past the end. I love that even though he seemed shifty when we first met him, it was actually because of him hiding that he can read and is actually pretty smart. So he's only trying to hide what could get him killed or kicked out again. He's actually a cool guy.

What I didn't like is the fact the first almost half of the book is mainly about "rolling." We genuinely get that in order to keep the population going, people had to have babies. But it was just constantly talked about in almost every chapter up until our characters leave Holy Wood. It got really repetitive and old after reading it for so long. The other thing I didn't enjoy so much was the end. Our group finally makes it down near San Diego to try and find who caused everything and the entire scene with the scientist takes place in the last 5% of the book. It felt rushed just squeezing it in that small section and there could have been more explanation of things both about the end and how they could try to fix it had it not been squeezed in that small bit. We get pretty much a quick explanation that the end involved nano-tech gone wrong and that Jemma could be a part of fixing it with her connection to the haze. However, I'm hoping we'll get a sequel that will conquer this trying to stop the ending.

I couldn't read this book. The format made it unreadable. Maybe I received a corrupt copy. It seemed interesting though and I hope others enjoy it.

Set in a somewhat sexist sounding society Mayfly by Jeff Sweat is a young adult dystopian scifi thriller. At some point the world has mostly died off leaving children raising children to carry on the human race. Seventeen has become old age in this society so the kids need to grow up fast to begin having their babies before they go.

Jemma knows nothing other than trying to survive but now that she’s at the age to become a Mama she’s not sure that is what she wants. Generally in Jemma’s world the boys become the Muscle and the girls become Mamas with little other options. But Jemma and her best friend Apple have decided to set out away from Holy Wood, the place they’ve known as home, to find out what is causing them to die off before the chance to even live.

Now when it comes to the idea that society has pretty much ended and those left can’t live past seventeen you can definitely say I’m going to be curious as to why and pick up the book. The world that has been created in here is really somewhat offensive to today’s standards pretty much taking a step back to the caveman era with woman only good for making babies but truth be told that made my curiosity shoot up even more to the hows and whys. But I have to question at the back of my mind who thought it was such a good idea to spend an astonishing long amount of time in the book with the characters repeatedly discussing “rolling” around with one another? This is still YA and we all get how babies are made and whether it’s graphic or not it kind of got a bit irritating to keep dwelling even with their cutesy made up words.

So anyway, now that the “rolling” rant is over let’s get on with the rest of the review for this one. To me the pacing was rather slow for the first half of the book but to be honest a lot of that time was the establishing the baby making society to it could have just been my own irritation with not progressing beyond that part. Once you get going past that and the adventure to finding answers starts the story picked up for me and saved itself from an even lower rating. At this point I actually began enjoying the book and the action going on and anxiously awaited what drew me in to begin with which was the cause for society to crumble.

There are moments in here that remind me of something like The Maze Runner with the age of the characters and as I’ve mentioned some of the words and how they talk. Jemma’s idea of not conforming to what is expected of her could remind some of things like Divergent too where everyone is expected to fit into a certain box and not be different from others. So if if these types of books appeal I’d say you might want to give this one a go.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.