Cover Image: Breeder

Breeder

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Member Reviews

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

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Thanks NetGalley for the preview!

Gosh, was this book intense! Will was a complicated character in an even more complicated world. My biggest criticism is a lot of the details of his world were not explained completely. I would’ve loved more background on some of the jargon. The ending also felt very abrupt, like a cliffhanger, but not. I wanted more information.

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Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

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this was a beautifully done scifi story, this was a great decide your fate novel. The characters were great and I really loved the story.

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This book was well written and had a lot of shock value to it. I loved the twist of the main character and who he really is. The nature of the world is interesting and macabre. Though, I do not think this would work in a classroom setting.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!


The book is well-written and easy to follow. Breeder was an extremely rare concept honestly. I've NEVER read anything like this before. The concert of the storyline was brilliant and unique.

I'd definitely recommend this to my friends.

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This was an awesome book. It starts out a little slowly, but once it picks up speed it grabs your attention and won't let go. My only complaint is it's too short and I hope there is a follow up sequel to it.

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This post apocalyptic dystopian is disturbing to say the least. The subjugation of women is The Handmaid’s Tale times 50. Females of reproductive age are Breeders, and forced to bear children for the corporation. If they do not bear enough live children then they are disposed of. If they have enough children to pay off their debt then they can gain their freedom, and become Shadows (who can get married, have jobs, and have children of their own). There isn’t a tremendous amount of world building in this book, which is normally a problem for me with dystopian novels, but didn’t really bother me with this book. The plot is laid out in such a way that we know what’s going on and it seems pretty self-explanatory. I really enjoyed Will as a character. He keeps fighting so hard just to live this life. The self loathing and hatred that Will shows later in the book is heartbreaking, and the brutality shown to Will can be very difficult to read. I had to put the book down a couple of times just to take a deep breath. But even though this is a really tough read, it is well written and a worthwhile read.

Thank you to NetGalley & Blackstone Publishing for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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I loved this book.

Is it really so bad to do nothing?
What if doing something is pointless?
Should we stop trying and look out for number one?


So I am a big dystopian fiction fan, and I read a lot of YA too. This was everything I wanted in a book. I had just finished a much publicised book before starting this, and I felt so disappointed with the characters and the world, so reading this was a real shock and a great pick me up.

Plot wise, this is a really good idea. There is definitely that HMT feel to it, but a little more modern and down to earth. It felt like something that could happen in a not to distant future. The way in which the society runs is very plausible and there is just enough description to emerse you into the new world.

Characterisation was brilliant. I really like Will. There's nothing worse than a protagonist you cannot relate to, but I found Will not just relatable, but likeable too. Will doesn't always make the right choices but for me that's what added the edge. I had guessed what crystal 8 was for, but I felt it was done nicely and avoided a lot of cliches. I really liked the way Will reacts after the crystal is taken away. It felt raw and real to me that someone would react with disgust at their own body. ( Sorry I'm being deliberately vague so as not to reveal anything).
I liked Alex too. She is clearly naive and a bit of a prat at times, but it works in the story and helps the author to explore morally grey areas. She adds a juxtaposition to Will. I have to say I was routing for Rob too, and it's this that I liked most about the book.

The reader is challenged. Will is not doing a good thing. Will is essentially part of the problem and so is Rob, and yet in a strange way, you find yourself as a reader, making excuses for them. Yes, I said it. Somehow listening to Will, you find yourself trying to justify child trafficking on the grounds that at least they get fed, the Corp is better than the badlands and the parents do it willingly. But of course afterwards, when Will is confronted, we too have to confront ourselves. The book is clever like that.

This is a clever book which is well written and includes solid characters and has a good pace. There are some serious political and moral undertones, and the author will have you questioning your own morality especially the notion of complicity and ignorance. Can't wait for the next installment.

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Breeder works strongly as a young adult thriller and science fiction story. The book is told is an engaging style, and I would love to share this text with young readers. A page-turner!

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“My name is Will. I’m a Westie. I live in Zone F. My corporation account is in credit.”
It’s hard to know where to start with this review, much less what to say without spoiling the book. My rating is a 2.5, that could teeter more towards 3 stars. First, Rijswijk’s writing is actually fantastic. They do a good job of world-building. Despite the very good writing, this book has minimal redeeming plot qualities. If you’ve read my reviews before, then you know that character growth is extremely important to me. Will consistently makes choices to save his own skin, and this doesn’t change even at the end. I wanted more for Will, and I wanted Will to do more for the society he lived in.
The content in this book is dark, and would most certainly be triggering for others. You never get a break from this content. This made it a touch difficult to get through.
My full review will be out July 12th, 2021

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The writing in this book is actually pretty good, but the world building felt like it was missing something.

The Corp is essentially the "government", but it's not technically a government, and everyone has to work to pay back the "debt" they're in for the Corporation taking care of them, using "Units". You can also get units from everyday things, like watching an ad the Corp. Females pay this debt back by being breeders (we're not even going to get into that).

The plot hole that bothers me the most though, is that there are all these illegal things, you pay for regular things by scanning your arm chip. Which tracks your whereabouts, your units, etc.

So why is Will using this chip to also pay for and do these illegal things? Gold is also a currency in this world, I don't understand.

There was a lot wrong with this world, which I believe was an intentional choice, but it was very hard to get through this book because of it.

*This eARC was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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A mixture of "The Giver" and "Handmaids Tale", "Breeder" by Honni van Rijswijk was a thrilling adventure that denotes gender and questions society's value on human life. In order to remain in the bubble of the society built to protect the human race from the dangers of the outside, men are expected to contribute labor and are evaluated based on what they contribute. The various tiers are highly segregated, and women are seen as simply a body to produce more laborers. The protagonist, Will, has to twist his way around the rules of his world in order to get the essential things that he needs to survive, as he holds a secret within him that he cannot dare confess. When Will finds a rebel "breeder" girl in the Grey Zone between tiers, he is determined to find out how to save her from getting caught. However, things don't work out the way one might expect it, and Will ends up in a place that he had been avoiding for all of his life. Thanks to a rebellion movement, however, Will plans to get out of his situation with the help of the movement, but also questions if it is worth losing a special offer that would grant potential happiness.

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As a result of my various committee appointments and commitments I am unable to disclose my personal thoughts on this title at this time. Please see my star rating for a general overview of how I felt about this title. Additionally, you may check my GoodReads for additional information on what thoughts I’m able to share publicly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and any other titles you are in charge of.

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Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Breeder in exchange for an honest review.

I understand that the title Breeder implies something along these lines, but the description doesn't make it explicitly clear what this book's about and I feel like with this kind of subject matter that's really important so for those of you who haven't read this yet, this book focuses on a society that takes girls at 13 to use them to forcefully produce children.

That's a lot, obviously, but it's not a plot that I think inherently can't work. I think you need to be an incredibly responsible author with a bulletproof plot to pull that off though without it being more problematic than it's worth and ultimately, I didn't get that here. The pacing is way too fast, blunt, and exposition-y and a lot of the scenes that are actually given time to play out are really, really dark. I also didn't get a clear moral message which is so, so important with books like this. Not every book needs to exist to push some kind of message or cause some grand revelation within the reader, but this one should have.

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