The Killing Plot

As a big fan of dystopian YA novels this one was a home run! While the killing plot has some of the same themes as other novels of the same genre it also contains so many new ideas. I was pleasantly surprised when reading this story and was fully invested from the first few pages. None of the plot was predictable. It was the perfect beginning to a series with a cliffhanger ending that has me waiting not so patiently for the next part. Definitely a great read!

An immersive and captivating dystopian novel, The Killing Plot is the story of Arela, a rebellious and intelligent young woman who wants to find out why kids are disappearing from the orphanage in which she lives. With the help of friends and a possible love interest, Arela begins to uncover a shocking and disturbing secret, one that reaches the top of their government. The more Arela uncovers, the more dangerous her world becomes, but Arela won’t rest until she learns the truth of Osiris and its missing orphans.

Arela is a fantastic protagonist with a great blend of rebelliousness, intellect, impulsivity, good intentions, and recklessness. I like that she persists and never gives up on her goals and the people she cares about. She also sees through the utopian facade of Osiris and the leaders who perpetuate the dystopian world.

I also love the found family between Arela and her three best friends. Parentless, they all live in the same orphanage, and they look out for, support, and encourage each other. They have such distinct and unique personalities, and I love their easy and funny banter as well as their strong bond. They are different in their approaches to life and their views on society, but that doesn’t interfere with the respect and love they have for each other.

Cenric is another interesting character who is similar to Arela and her friends. Though he has parents, their absence and his subsequent loneliness and feelings of abandonment are evident. Unlike Arela and her friends, Cenric has a more solitary life and seems to avoid situations where he could develop relationships. That is until he meets Arela.

Cenric and Arela have an instant connection that only grows as the story progresses. This enemies-to-lovers, forbidden love relationship is full of obstacles, mystery, and angst. Cenric is the son of the leaders of Osiris, and Arela is an orphan. This puts them on opposite ends of the social ladder and leads to a secret relationship.

Cenric and Arela’s views on society also contrast, which causes a bit of tension in their budding relationship. Cenric’s indoctrinated views stand in sharp contrast to Arela’s, and it is interesting to see her open Cenric’s eyes to the mistruths and the harsh realities of Osiris. However, Cenric isn’t as naive as he seems. Cenric is also very secretive, and the pair struggles with trusting and opening up to each other. This is for good reason since Osiris is intolerant to dissension or deviation from the norm.

I enjoyed the dystopian elements in the story which include disenfranchised people, and an oppressed society with total governmental control, harsh rules and punishments, a fear of the world outside of Osiris, and a lack of individuality. The story is filled with mystery, morally grey characters, and you never know who to trust, especially considering how many people manipulate the system for their own personal gain.

There are also some supernatural elements in the story that intrigued me. Arela, for example, develops a unique power that is exacerbated by emotions. I’m curious how this newfound power ties into her parentage, her past, and her future. I think it also relates to Osiris and the world beyond. What is beyond the walls of Osiris? Does anyone else have these powers? I can’t wait to learn more in the next book! Thanks so much to NetGalley and Tahnee Perry for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

This was such an easy read. Really recommend for anyone who enjoyed the Divergent or Hunger Games series as it has similar sort of context in terms of the plot. I really enjoyed the development of the characters, but also, the world the novel is set in. it is a bit of a slow burner, but after all it is the first in a soon to be trilogy, so it’s important to set the scene per say. The chapters are also quite short which is great if you struggle with not being able to focus for long periods of time on one thing, or don’t have the time to read 20+ page chapters. I’m really looking forward to the next one in the trilogy!!

Thank you Netgalley and Tahnee Perry for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Set in Osiris, where the last of humanity lives, we follow the story of Arela, an orphan who is trying to find information about her past and her parents. In her continuous search for answers, she uncovers the truth upon the disappearance of orphans where a corruption that involves some of the top-level in their government.

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With an intricately written world and fascinating plot, The Killing Plot is an amazing first book! It begins similar to other dystopian novels and it also contains new ideas. Tahnee Perry's writing style is easy to follow and consistent throughout the book. It was mostly slow paced to introduced a world so different from ours, letting the reader soaked in all the details. The characters are well-develop and relatable. Arela, the protagonist, is wonderful! She's adventurous, intelligent, a little bit rebellious and isn't afraid to speak her mind.
I struggled slightly with the romance element. The enemy to lovers/forbidden love feels forced and rushed for me. There's also Arela's developing power, how it will play on her future and the world beyond the walls of Osiris that intrigues me. I did expect it to end on a cliffhanger, and it did 🙈. I can't wait to read more!

Set in Osiris, a dystopian American city, Arela Harkess is an orphan attempting to uncover the dangerous mysteries of her parents and the increasingly missing children in TemWel, the boarding school orphanage. Each turn leads her closer to a truth about her world, but is it the one she’s looking for?

This book was riveting and fascinating at every turn. The first page immediately captivates the reader with the instant action and intrigue and it rarely lets up. Tahnee Perry created an immersive and compelling plot and world as it brings up some of today's issues in a different time and with different viewpoints, including censorship and protests, the price of freedom and peace, and homosexuality. Seeing multiple sides of the argument, with a little bias, is engrossing. Moreover, the situations that the arguments take place in are slower than the usual fast-paced writing, allowing the reader time to ponder on the ideas. In addition, Arela’s non-willingness to join the rebellion is a new idea and didn’t fall into a cliche. It was well-formed and fit in with her character since she grew up in a city-run school. Additionally, the ending was unexpected and well-written, and there were clues so that if the reader examined the book diligently, they might guess it. Also, although Cenric is a somewhat cliche character, he is an essential one and rebelled by painting, a frivolous and unrecommended pursuit. He helps the reader see the ugliness of the society as well as the small aspects of beauty.

There is some difficulty connecting Arela. Her powerful female narrative and her ingenuity are both compelling, however, she tends to be hot-headed and irritable. With all her misinterpretations of situations and anger explosions, the romance with Cenric feels forced as if the author was trying to cover a ‘what if she went with Cenric instead of another guy.’ It’s still cute, but it’s hard to see how the two ended up together.

I recommend this book to those who enjoy YA (Young Adult) dystopian series and don't shy away from big questions. This is a good read.

The Killing plot had me coming back for more right out of the gate! Taking place far in the future, it does begin like others in the YA dystopian society, but the author takes us on a new journey. The protagonist Arela, is an orphan, living in a state run facility that has been “placing” children, with our record of to whom or where. When one of her classmates Hinrick comes up missing, she takes it upon herself to find him, and the other missing orphans, along the way discovering her own past and discovering out what may be beyond the wall that keeps “Osiris “ safe.
Brava Ms Perry, what a fabulous debut novel. I’m anxious to see how Arela’s quest continues

Overall, I liked The Killing Plot, it was engaging throughout and had characters that you could really invest in. I read a lot of young adult fantasy books and I liked how this one differed from the others with its story. We have a strong female protagonist who doesn’t mind taking risks and speaks her mind. I also liked how the love story portion of the book was blended in the story and not the main focus. The one thing I did feel was that the ending felt a bit rushed, although it kept me guessing what was going to happen next.

This story is about a city which is under a “bubble” after the fall of the civilization we currently live in. The main character, Arela, is an orphan who lives and studies with other orphans. Arela is a bit of a rebel and is looking to find information on her parents any way that she can since they have been wiped from the registry of Osiris. The beginning of the book sets the scene of how things are done in Osiris (if you break the law you are exciled out of the “bubble”) and the background of Arela and her friends. Osiris is controlled by conservatives, and in particular by one family, however they are thwarted along the way by revolutionaries who use whatever means necessary to take control of the government. Arela gets caught up with some people in the ministry and some revolutionaries and while some come to her aid when she needs it, others try to bring her down.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the premise intriguing, the story engaging and the writing smooth and fluid.
The story was paced well and I found myself eager to see where the story went.
I found it quite hard to put down and finished the novel in a few hours. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

Strong independent female character??? Say no more! I couldn’t put it down. Such a good fun read. A very well thought out story with twists and turns around every corner.

I definitely will be picking this one up!

The Killing Plot is about the last known human civilization, Osiris, in the world. In order to survive, the political system has set down very restrictive and strict rules. Everything is high regulated, from what they eat, to how and where they die. Safe to say, Osiris is a very predictable place to live in. With all of that restriction, a rebel group rose to demand freedom, and though things are usually peaceful, the violence has ramped up and Arela gets caught up in the middle.

It’s good story, and it has good relationships. I found that there were a lot of vague moments that disrupted the flow of the story for me but that could be to build up the rest of the books in the series.

Alera is a good character. Cenric’s privileged but isn’t stuck up, he’s actually really insecure about the people around him and their intentions. But is down enough to befriend an orphan.

Some moments when the characters talk about the rebel group, they seem to know a lot about them to be so removed from them, which I found very random. I also felt like things escalated pretty quick and it felt like Arela fell into viper’s nest very easily.

Towards the end of the book, Arela actually gets on my nerves. She’s irrational and impulsive. Her decisions have terrible consequences, which sets things up for book 2.

That ending was so hectic and unexpected. Hate the cliffhanger, but it IS a series, so I have to wait for book 2 to know where things are headed.

This was a great debut!

Set in a dystopian future, The Killing Plot tells the story of orphan, Arela Harkess, who reveals the corrupt underbelly and political machinations of her world on her search for answers as to who she is.

The dystopian world was intriguing and it was a well executed concept.The dystopian setting addresses a lot of societal issues, human rights, homosexuality and privilege for example. The characters were easy to relate to and well developed. Arela was the perfect main character: brave, not afraid to be wrong, speaks up regardless of the consequences. The secondary characters were well drawn too. Her friends had lives of their own and although there were a lot of characters it felt like you really knew them. There was plenty of story going on so no need to rely on the romance to drive the story which I appreciated.

In hindsight, with the knowledge that this is part of a trilogy, I feel like the romance side of things could have been a little less hurried. I did enjoy it but it was a bit too instalove for my taste. The love interest was a great character though,

I highly recommend this to those who enjoyed The Hunger Games and Divergent. The Killing Plot ends on a cliffhanger so I'm hoping the author writes fast!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3823387810

Additional notes:

I'm sure you have it under control but there were several typos and formatting errors in my arc. I didn't mention it in my official review but it did impact on my ability to enjoy the book.

Keep writing! That cliffhanger ;)

Dystopian fiction, fun, exciting, well written, with a touch of romance. Looking forward to the sequel.

Arela is an orphan living in a dystopian society under a protective dome. I found her story to be compelling and had no trouble seeing it through to the end of the first book.

At the beginning of the story, all Arela cares about is finding out what happened to her parents, which is natural given the mysterious lack of official records. As she digs into restricted files though, Arela stumbles onto a larger conspiracy. She really doesn’t have enough information to figure out what’s going on in a logical, methodical manner. Instead, she charges into things she doesn’t fully understand, relying on her sheer tenacity.

Arela is very intelligent, but also consistently reckless. This made me nervous as she ran around the city breaking all sorts of rules, but I had to admire her unrelenting pursuit of the truth. I enjoyed the romance in this book because it added to the plot, rather than distracting from it. I also liked reading about Arela’s friends, the people she grew up with and loves like family. I’m glad this book did not fall into the “friendless orphan” trope.

The world building in this book was good. I find “bubble” societies very interesting to read about. The author did a nice job of establishing Osiris, but also leaving room for further development in the sequel. I’m looking forward to learning more about the world right along with Arela. And as with many dystopian books, it is interesting to see how governments evolve to ensure human survival—and at what cost.

3.5 stars

This may be the darkest YA dystopian book I have read so far.

Arela is orphaned due to her parents' disappearance and she has spent her entire teenage years trying to figure out what has happened to them. While she is looking through the hidden archives, her friends are disappearing as well. Now she has to figure out what is happening with them.

I kind of struggled with Arela's character. I understand she is an orphan, but dang she is angry. She makes enemies with everyone. It felt like a lot of the book was overshadowed by her anger and fighting with people. For a while I lost what the plot was actually about.

***Potential Spoiler Alert***

Ummmmm did she unearth a pedophilia ring in a YA book? Maybe not, but it kind of sounded like it when a teenage boy was in a costume sitting on a guy's lap. Kind of awkward.

With the cliffhanger at the end of the book, I can't wait to read the next one to see what happens.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Killing Plot is set in a post-apocalyptic world, a dystopia that (apparently) used to be the city of New York, now enclosed in a dome to keep out a virus that kills, slowly and painfully, over the course of days. Arela is an orphan, being raised by Temporary Welfare Cooperative (TemWel) in Osiris, the monarchy in which she lives. Arela, now 17, was abandoned by her parents when she was 4, and has spent most of her trying to find out if her parents are still alive, and why they abandoned her to be raised as an orphan. Arela lives in a technological society, and she is a talented user of that technology - far beyond the skills of her peers. Arela and her friends, Rosalin (her roommate), and the twins Jaela and Jacobo, are all rapidly approaching graduation and entrance to either Higher Ed or Polytechnica for further education; like many their age, they are worried about what is coming and if they will be separated. In her attempts to find her parents and discover her past, Arela finds a device described as old technology; based on various descriptions of size and appearance, it may be an old cell phone. She plans to use it to access her world's variation of the internet, without the risks associated with accepted - and government-monitored - devices. Trying to find a usable power cable, and to properly reprogram the device, leads Arela to meet a variety of people she would otherwise never meet, and they influence her actions throughout the book, for both good and bad.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but the ending seemed rushed, as if the author could not decide quite how to end it, and there are far too many loose ends for a debut novel. It has become the fashion recently to write books with the intention of creating a series, and to end novels in this cliffhanger fashion; I find it to be presumptuous of new authors to assume that their work is good enough that there will automatically be a sequel, and as a reader, I don't enjoy being left to wonder which of the half-dozen threads left hanging (some addressed only early in the novel - plus the totally new one introduced in the last several pages - will be addressed in the next volume, assuming there *is* a next volume. Leaving a single thread to lead into a possible sequel is one thing; there are so many threads left unaddressed that this book seems unfinished. It reduced my enjoyment of the novel as a whole, and therefore my overall rating.

The Killing Plot was Hunger Games meets Divergent meets From Blood and Ash, with interesting plot twists and elements that made it stand on it's own.

I adore the dystopian subgenre and I've read the same tropes and plot devices over and over, and I'm happy to continue doing that, but I also really enjoy when I find a book that does something different. TKP is about a girl named Arela who lives in an orphanage. Arela is on a mission to figure out why other children in the orphanage are disappearing, but the more she learns the more danger she puts herself in and the closer she comes to everything falling apart beneath her feet.

The plot in this book is really quite good. I enjoyed the world building, the explanation about civilization, how Osiris ran, etc.

Arela herself was a bit difficult for me to connect to personally. She was easy to anger and often completely misread situations, leading to even more anger, and it was difficult to understand where she was coming from and where all of the anger was coming from. Because a lot of this internal turmoil didn't feel resolved or connected to anything it just made her connections with other characters feel somewhat shallow and lacking in emotion.

I am interested to see how she develops as a character moving forward, but I hope that Book 2 will address some of Arela's anger issues.

I will be counting the days until the next book in the series is released. That is how much I loved this book.

Diversity? Yep. A strong female lead? Yep. Beautiful world-building and extremely interesting political scheme? Yep!

This series is going to be a bombshell. It's a great YA dystopian novel for readers who want something light but extremely enthralling to pick up. A great found-family dynamic going on, and the romance potential is through the roof!! Add this to your TBR immediately!

(I received an ARC on NetGalley)

Love a good dystopian novel. Fans of Fallout, the video game series, will enjoy this book. It has very end of the world vibes with a great mystery. I definitely recommend!