Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC. This is my honest review.
This was not what I was expecting based on the description I read. I was really intrigued. It's almost like a futuristic footloose but also a divergent mix. I do like that this book was such a different view. I would highly recommend anyone looking for a futuristic dystopia read.

Thanks to NetGalley for this free rewiew copy. I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast-paced read in an interesting, yet distopian world. It also kind of felt like coming home cause I follow Aviva's music for years.
And I was finally able to see how everything is tied together. It also added some depth to the story. And the book was full of secret hidden messages from her albums and some were even references to her songs (BRN, Queen of the Freaks,...)
It's a great debut and I can't wait to read the next book.

This book should have been split into two, more detail about the upper world and another about the underground. It just glazed over the excellent bit that was going on about the world up top. I wanted to know more about her mother, father, and the weird society, but nope, that ball was dropped.

The dystopian novel Self/Less tells the story of 17-year-old Teddy caught between two worlds: The world of the Metropolis, a city that squashes any notion of self-expression, assigns jobs and spouses for its citizens, and encourages them to report those who go against their rules; and the Underground, who consists of once-Metropolis citizens who were able to escape and form their own societies, or clans, underneath the Metropolis, all the while relying on the Metropolis for supplies. After killing a clan head, Teddy finds herself having to learn how to survive in the Underground and fend off those who want her dead.

The beginning of the novel is fast paced, as Teddy is trying to figure out what her mother is up to, why she hasn’t seen her father, and who Kit is and where she lives. The novel gets interesting when Teddy kills a clan head and find herself banished to the Underground after her mother stages Teddy’s “sterilization” in order to save her life; however, the novel tends to drag a little bit while it tracks the first 3 weeks Teddy is in the Underground trying to survive. She appears to learn the ways of the Underground a bit too quickly, and it is identified pretty early on who the person is who wants Teddy dead. What is a positive about this book is that, even though readers know who wants Teddy dead, it does leave the question of who in Teddy’s inner circle might be betraying her right up until the last few chapters and also provides a stunning death that will leave readers heartbroken. There is also a bit of romance weaved into the story as well, but nothing more than some kissing occurs. The author provides good tension between the two characters while teasing whether that relationship will go to the next level, but nothing specific is described.

Young adults who enjoy reading dystopian or science fiction novels like the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver will enjoy this book and will want to read the second book in the series to follow Teddy’s story.

This was certainly an interesting concept and as you read you can easily get immersed in the story when you first started the book.

But alas, it didn't truly deliver what I was hoping for. The plot details were either patchy or drawn out. It was hard to stay connected to the characters and the motivations of them.

Great in concept, just personally did not deliver for me.

Review given in exchange for a ARC off NetGalley.

Running on the theory of 1984, As much as I love dystopian, I had trouble getting into this book. Maybe its because I recently finished reading 1984 as well so it felt like more of the same.

Worth a try, as it wasn't a bad story just bad timing on my behalf.

Great Job on a debut novel I will keep an eye out for further books by Aviva.

First, I’ve got to say that I prefer the Goodreads cover of this book to the cover I actually received from NetGalley, although I thank them for the free copy. The latter cover is poorly designed, a graphic designer clearly phoned it in, just as Insta-models Photoshop their faces and bodies on Instagram. It’s really not good, and I’m one of the stark supporters of the belief that one should never judge a book by its cover.

Let’s be honest, people will always judge a book by its cover. People will always gravitate toward books they find externally appealing to the eye; whether or not the covers are truly and stylistically glamorous and aesthetically pleasing or simply full of attractive men or recycled caricatures, appearances matter. This book’s cover does nothing to aid people’s desire to read it, if anything, it detracts from the quality of the book itself.
I almost didn’t read this book because of how much I disliked its cover. Its saving grace was the fact that I heard people talking about it [quite negatively, I might add] on Goodreads. Also, I managed to overlook my distaste for the graphic cover design image because I liked the book’s description.

I won’t fault readers for skipping right past this book, however; I would do precisely that if I saw it in a bookstore. It doesn’t jump out at me. Actually, I lied, it does significantly draw me in, but only because I’m ensnared by how off-putting and repulsive I found the cover.

Truthfully, this book needs a new graphic designer, stat!

The truth is, good covers sell books—do you know how many books I’ve gotten simply because their covers were stunningly beautiful? The pages inside were often strikingly less beautiful and detailed as their gorgeous covers, but they still took money out of my pocket!

Good covers sell books. Authors and publishers, please, for the love of all that’s holy, invest in a good graphic cover designer! Jeez!

Now, grumbling aside, let’s get down to the meat of this book, shall we?

I nearly gave this book four stars. I love dystopian books, and I have since I was just a little girl. This book may have not been the most imaginative book ever, but I found the prose enticing, the characters complex, and the pacing even. Ultimately, I had to give it three stars instead of four because I just could not stand one of the main characters, Kit. She is literally one of the most idiotic people I’ve ever come across. How stupid can you be? I hate girls who act like they’re so tough and hard and brittle or unbreakable like Jade from Victorious when they’re really just painfully lonely, desperate for attention, stubborn, and longing to be loved. Stop pretending. You’re not fooling anyone!

This idiot, Kit, not only stupidly trusted the woman who tortured and permanently scarred her but repeatedly defended the people who helped her former boss and her lackeys manipulate and harm everyone around her. On top of that, she constantly dismissed Teddy’s and Jamie’s warnings that something wasn’t right; they were practically in her face screaming at her about the rats/moles in their Underground organization and the fact that she should be careful about who she trusts and shares private information with, and Kit, being the genius that she is, decides to tattletale and spill every intimate detail that they are planning to the double agents in question.

She’s as loyal as a dog; she will lick the face of anyone who throws her a bone, a tiny little scrap. It’s pathetic!
As for Teddy, the main female character, she wasn’t my favorite person but she exasperated me significantly less than Kit because, although her complaining was annoying and juvenile, she had every right to complain.
Teddy knew nothing about the world, she wasn’t affiliated with the movers and shakers, she did nothing but follow Kit and Jamie around, and she was like a gilded bird in a cage the entire time. Everyone, from her mother to her so-called friends, to her clan, left her completely in the dark.

I kid you not, the girl’s entire personality was drawing faces and dreaming about kissing boys like Jamie, who I can’t even understand why she was attracted to in the first place—he’s as significant as a koala bear at a zoo. There’s already so many cute and cuddly animals in the world. You don’t go to the zoo to pet them, you watch wholesome videos of them frolicking around on YouTube or BuzzFeed like everybody else.

You go to the zoo to see the real predators roam around, to watch lions roar and cheetahs hunt and snakes slither and dolphins sing. You go to the zoo for entertainment, to watch monkeys swing from trees! That’s a lot more interesting than watching a cute little animal (or guy) smile and laugh and play with itself. It’s boring, like Jamie.

Jamie was like a rock in the background of a mountain; he was that irrelevant to the story, that insignificant, that infinitesimal of a character. He had no range. No dynamism. No personality whatsoever. He was dry as toast; Kit was his butter and bread; Teddy was his jam. His strawberry or orange marmalade. Kit was his peanut butter; she left Teddy jelly.

Every time she tries to help, she just hurts. She makes everything worse. She’s a disgrace of a friend and a liability as a soldier—how can you trust a rebel who trusts everyone? Just kill her off at this point, not only would it increase my enjoyment of the story, but I might actually deem this book worthy of a solid four stars.
All in all, I have to give this book three stars, but I wouldn’t rule it out entirely. It’s worthy of being read, but definitely needs some tweaks: some character adjustments and a complete overhaul of the current cover design.

'Self/less' has a great premise - a dystopian society where self-expression and creativity are prohibited.

The setting of self/less was reminiscent of many dystopian novels such as 'Divergent' and 'The Giver' but Teddy's story took on a unique trajectory. I will admit that this book isn't the most original but it was still a fun and easy read. I particularly enjoyed the multimedia formatting of this book. It actually reminded me a lot of 'Illuminae' and I think that fans of the Illuminae series might enjoy this book too.

I would recommend this book for young readers who are getting into reading or for those who are looking for a fast paced dystopian story (I've heard many people saying that they miss the dystopian era of books in the 2010s).

I enjoyed the message of this story and I want to say that I loved the book but it was not too different than other well known dystopian novels in the past. That being said it was still beautifully written and I still enjoyed reading it.

I really wanted to love this, it wasn't bad by any means, but it fell a little flat to me. I might not have been the exact target audience that it was aimed too, but the premise of it felt dystopian in the way of a 2010-esque teen series that was adapted into a movie series (*cough cough* divergent/hunger games). It was good, but I can't see myself wanting to re-read to experience the thrills again. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me this ARC to review early.

This was a pretty good dystopian story. Different enough to keep me engaged while following the format and expectations of the genre. Some of the names for things they used were kinda boring - although that was the point. There was a good twist part way through the book and I found the main character interesting and it was exciting to follow her.

"A world where self-expression is banned." was a interesting idea in a young adult novel. I was glad I was able to read this and the characters in this world. The cover is what drew me into the book and I'm glad I stayed. Teddy was a interesting and real character and I enjoyed getting to know her.

"I walk back to the window. The new moon has left the streets shrouded in impenetrable blackness. I turn to a fresh page and lie my pencil on its side, covering the blank white page in thick black strokes. Covering the lies . . . or revealing them?"