This was an enjoyable read as a middle grade dystopia. It didn't go as dark as many YA dystopias do, but it was still sufficiently unsettling to keep the reader guessing and wanting to understand the dark secrets of this strange science fiction society.

3.5 stars rounded down.
An interesting premise but I'm not sure about the execution.
So much happened in this story that it was almost too much and got confusing at times with the flitting back and forth between plot points.

Occasionally, certain things seemed to be in response to things that hadn't been said, as though something had been edited out but the whole thing hadn't been rechecked afterwards to make sure it still read correctly.
The whole voice of the book seemed to chop and change frequently, almost like multiple people had worked on it but not read each others work.
It read as YA/middle grade sometimes but then there were gruesome parts that suggest it isn't for a young audience.

I was interested in the world and felt that more could have been done to explain it as it often felt like there was a lot going on but no given reasons as to why. I feel like the story could have benefited from being a duology.
I also really enjoyed the image early on in the book and would have loved more of these, I was disappointed that there weren't more.

A wonderful dystopian YA book that takes readers on a journey of cool concepts, mysteries, and an actioned-packed/tense backdrop as the time ticks down!

This book really caught me by surprise, I didn’t knew what I would find here, but in a nutshell is a lot like an YA matrix, it really keep me engaged the whole book, to explain what this is about without spoilers, our main character Chiara, was born out of permission, in this world everything is decided through the AI “Auto” and Auto watches everything and also listens to everything, of course all for the greater good, or is it?

In the first couple of chapters, Chiara meet her father (children in this world are supposed to live only with one adult and they are not supposed to be emotional about it), and soon after that her whole world is turned upside down, she loses everything, Chiara growth is significative and hard choices need to be made…

I was surprised with how the story went, but I did like it, Chiara learned in a hard way the truth about her world, and she did what I always admire in people who live in dystopian worlds, she fought to change the outcome, I recommend this book, it keep me engaged till the end, and to make it much better we have a nice tied ending, but in a way that I wouldn't be surprised if a second book were to come. I did enjoy the way it was written.

Thank you NetGalley and Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

High-tech rules in this exciting fight for human survival, where nothing is as it seems.

Riley is an anomaly, a child born through natural means without DNA modifications. Stranger still, she's at the top of her class. When her mother and grandfather pass away, the last year of her schooling goes downhill as she suffers from sudden seizures and memory lapses. When her teacher finds a way to block Riley's success, weird things begin to happen, and Riley begins to realize that more sinister things are happening than she could have ever imagined.

This one is packed with AI and high-tech goodness, letting a futuristic world unfold in the unique ways. The set-up of the society, at first, rings cliche and reminded a tiny bit of Divergent but only for a moment before it steered in its own direction. The book does hold a mix of familiar, dystopian elements, which set a stabile ground for dystopian fans, and at the same time, weaves an original direction to keep the reader uncertain of exactly what was going to happen next. In other words, dystopian fans who love science fiction tech are going to enjoy this one.

To say that this is fast-paced is almost an understatement. While it's not super heavy on action, there is something always happening to move the plot along. This made it a bit hard for me to sink into during the first chapters, since the plot took control and let character and world development fall a little behind...which also left Riley as a character an arm's length away. Luckily, this switches gears a few chapters in to let Riley grow more sympathetic, and the world finally settles in. Also, Riley is only thirteen when this begins...making her fourteen or so (?) at graduation. She comes across older and wiser, though, during much of the read, and is easy to root for. The rest of the characters carry interesting personalities and weave into the plot at all the right times. Throwing many of these in as AIs made for an intriguing mix.

And there's romance, but only a little. This doesn't carry a huge drive on the plot, which I was happy to see, but adds a nice hint of hope, warmth and sweetness, which considering the cold end of tech, was a great touch.

It's a fun read once it gets going and leaves food for thought. I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars, so I'll be giving this one a 4.5 and rounding up.

If you liked Divergent or the film Gattaca then you'll love "Disconnected" by Riley Cross. This dystopian young adult book contains a world where there isn't natural selection, but selective breeding, which leads to a very specific class system. Can someone who was bred outside of the system get into the upper job classification? And what goes on outside of the city? You'll be confronted with many social issues as you traverse Unity with Chiara, the main character.

3.5
I think this book does what it sets out to as a dystopian YA. It was a bit more graphic in descriptions of gore than I remember from other YA but it’s also been a long time since I read dystopian YA in particular.

I do think the characters were interesting with some depth, and the story was compelling. We follow Chiara as she falls out of the pull of her society and joins the outcasts. It felt a bit Hunger Games, particularly the romantic subplot which was very reminiscent of the Katniss-Gale-Peeta love triangle, although it wasn’t a huge part of the plot and didn’t interrupt the story. However, I would’ve liked to learn more about the outcast characters who Chiara befriends.

I did find the plot a bit confusing at times as there are places when Chiara, the protagonist, has made plans and we discover them as she acts them out. My guesses for tests were often wrong which always feels good when the book actually surprises you!

There is a character in the second half of the book who essentially has a speech impediment - a modification to his vocal chords means he often says a word that sounds similar to the word he meant but isn’t the same, like marriage and manage - which I thought was handled badly by the other characters. They constantly correct him in a nonproductive way as he can’t help it, and it kind of rubbed me the wrong way a bit.

Overall, I thought the pacing was good, the characters were interesting, and the plot was compelling throughout for the genre.

I received a free copy to review from netgalley - thank you!

Somewhere, there is a decent story in this, but it still needs to be coaxed out. It felt like any other dystopian sci-fi YA, where a brilliant protagonist shakes off an all-controlling AI to find her humanity, and the truth about the fearsome "other" that lives beyond the walls of their perfect world. With a love triangle thrown in. The plot was predictable too.

More than anything else, the book felt like an outline rather than a fleshed-out novel. There was no feeling, as such, no sense of danger, anger, grief, etc.—just words telling us that something awful/wonderful just happened. Plus, I didn't quite get my head around how the virtual and real interacted or co-existed. It seemed quite random, but it's very possible that I just didn't understand it.

(Review copy from NetGalley)

This is going to be the first arc that I wasn't a fan of. To start off, the beginning of this book was really interesting. I loved the whole school setting and how the main character had to figure things out. I also loved that she and her best friend had a great relationship. I would have to say that thing that bugged me the most about the beginning was the fact that she was reminded that she shouldn't have been where she was because she was an anomaly. The beginning of this book was definitionally well thought out and I liked getting to know the characters. There are a few things that bugged me about the last half. One of the things was, that it felt a little rushed and all over the place. I really wanted to love this book but there were parts that bored me to death. I really would have loved to get to know the characters in the second half of the book.

I really enjoyed getting to know Chiara, as a main characters she worked well in this scifi setting. I really enjoyed getting to go on this journey and thought it was a unique take on the scifi genre. I enjoyed the rest of the characters and was glad to read this. I enjoyed the way Riley Cross wrote this and look forward to more from them.

"The hallway monitor glided towards the testing wing of the school and held open the door to room number 221B. I knew these rooms well. Behind each door that lined both sides of the hallway were endless testing devices that organized the past, present, and future into data columns. Auto no doubt relied on these results to calculate each student’s future. Hopefully, I will have a future."