Thank you for the opportunity to read Sunset Rising. Unfortunately, I did not complete my reading of the book before it was archived in April 2015. I do not plan to finish the book.

I had so many issues trying to download this book and by the time it fully downloaded it was archived. Then the tablet failed and I lost the file. I never ended up reading it which is a shame as I was looking forward to it. But friends on Netgalley who did get a copy said it was great and I would love it. I don't want to not leave a review or unfinish it so I will get a copy.

This was a fast-paced, highly engrossing YA dystopia. It's got elements of The Hunger Games and The 100 series (at least the TV version of the latter; I haven't read the books yet) and other books, without being a copy of anything. The characters are good, though a bit stock, and the oppressive atmosphere of the literal underground in which they live is well done. I will definitely read the follow-up.

The main character, Sunset "Sunny" O'Donnell, is one that you cannot help but root for, and even when she makes bad decisions she makes them out of love for her friends and family, and out of lack of choice in an extremely unfair situation. Sunny's people are basically slaves to a powerful overclass. All of these people exist in a post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout shelter of sorts, with the overclass living the good life on the upper levels and everyone else -- people who were not even supposed to be admitted to the fallout shelter all those 200+ years ago -- relegated to the Pit (dug deep over the years) and used for labor and other more unsavory purposed. Sunny's people are only allowed to live until the age of 30, at which point they are considered a drain on resources. After some precipitating events, Sunny -- as you can guess from the title -- finds herself at the center of a revolt, alongside a certain unlikely former member of the overclass.

There are three factors that make this less than a 5-star read. First, there are some things about the basic premise, revealed as early as the opening section, that don't make any sense whatsoever. If the poor were originally not supposed to be admitted, how would the place have run? Were the rich people going to divvy up the work for themselves? How did those original rich people even get chosen, since apart from a President, VP, and some army folks, we are not told about any of them? These are huge holes that the author didn't think all the way through before jumping to the future to get into Sunny's story. Next, there's the writing. It's a bit repetitive and definitely in need of polish. If this were a younger author's first book I would be way more forgiving, but instead this author is an adult who is perhaps trying to hard to write in a style that appeals to YA, and that's a bit patronizing. Lastly, the book seems very ambivalent about female sexual agency and shame. Like for example, when a girl is forced into sexual slavery, it's sometimes clear that this isn't her fault in the slightest, and at other times implies that she should be ashamed. So, which is it? It certainly cannot be both, and I certainly know which I would choose!