Monday, October 1, 2012

The Bar Code Prophecy (Bar Code #3) by Suzanne Weyn

As usual I have to start this by thanking both Netgalley and the publisher, Scholastic this time, for letting me read an egalley of this.  I was so excited to get this as I'd really enjoyed the first two books in the series.  Unfortunately, both of them came out, and I read both of them, before I was blogging, at least before I was blogging on here.  It is possible I blogged about them somewhere else, but I don't really know how to get back to that and find them.  So, I was able to look on Goodreads and see what I rated them, and I have to say that my ratings have gone down one star with each book.  While the story was still good this time, I have to say that maybe because of all the dystopians that I've been reading lately, this one felt a little rushed.  It was a very short book, only about 200 pages.  And I assume it will be in the same format as the others, a small paperback.  In this book we start with a new character, and our protagonist from the other novels, Kayla, is now a "legend" you might say in the bar code resistance.  Global 1 has supposedly "solved" all the issues with the tattoo keeping track of all your genetic information so now companies can't fire you for having issues, and supposedly there are no longer nanobots injected when you get the tattoo that can kill you if you have issues that are not genetically desirable.  But Grace, our new main character, believes in Global 1.  Her father works there, and has had issues since the whole big fiasco.  She even works there part time.  But she is about to turn 17 which means it is time for her to get her tattoo.  However, she's been doing a lot of climbing with a cute guy from school, Eric.  And he seems to be interested in her now.  But for some reason he also seems a bit against her getting the tattoo, but he won't really tell her why.  Once she gets her tattoo though, all hell breaks loose.  She finds out she's adopted, and her real father is the "father" of the bar code tattoo.  And her adopted family, that she's always believed is her family, disappears on the same day.  Eric shows up to help her, and takes her into the resistance.  It turns out that both Grace and Eric may be part of some prophecy that the Native Americans think points to the end of the world. I do love that the book brings in meteors coming close to earth as a possible issue.  I enjoyed getting back into this world.  But, my biggest issue is how quickly everything happens.  We jump from event to event with not a lot of details.  I just feel this book could have been fleshed out a bit more to help it fit in with a lot of the popular dystopians out there today.  Then again, maybe this is a good dystopian for someone who just wants a quick read and doesn't need all the extra detail.  So, it's a good story, just a bit disappointing after all the books I've read lately.