Book Review: The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary Weber

The Hunger Games meets V Meets …

I don’t read a lot of Christian speculative fiction, because a lot of it is fantasy, a genre I don’t enjoy. I do enjoy science fiction, and I especially enjoy a good dystopian thriller. I picked up The Evaporation of Sofi Snow believing it was Christian dystopian, which was half right. It was dystopian, but it also had an element of science fiction.

What it didn’t have was any Christian content—almost the opposite, in that there was a lot of almost-swearing that I was surprised to see in a book from a major Christian publisher (e.g. gad knows, pissed, heck, WTF, mentions of sex and alcohol). Having said that, it’s obvious from the content, the comparisons, and the notable authors who’ve endorsed Sofi Snow that it’s not aimed at the Christian market. If you’re looking for a Christian dystopian novel, Sofi Snow is not the novel you’re looking for.

But if you’re looking for a fast-paced young adult dystopian thriller, The Evaporation of Sofi Snow may be perfect for you. 

It’s set in near-future Earth, eleven years after the Delonese arrive and sort out the problems of the Fourth World War. They also set up the games, a curious mix of the Hunger Games and the Triwizard Tournament, where teams of real-life gamers work through a maze created by their online gaming teammates.

The trouble begins when there is a terrorist attack at the games, leaving Sofi and her brother both declared dead. But Sofi is very much still alive … and she’s convinced Shilo is as well. So begins the race to save herself, find help, and locate and save Shilo.

The story is told in third person from two points of view—Sofi, and Miguel, the youngest of the thirty human ambassadors to Delon. I don’t know how a teenager got appointed to such an important role, but Miguel is more convincing than, say, Princess Amidala in the first Start Wars movie. Anyway, Miguel is a useful ally because he knows all the right humans and Delonese—even if Sofi is convinced he loathes her.

There were a couple of things which bugged me. 

I’m from New Zealand, so I didn’t understand many of Miguel’s lapses into Spanish (bobo, pierdete, cuate). Yes, I’ve heard of Google Translate. But that takes me out of the story. I didn’t like the cliffhanger ending, but I’d been warned it was coming, so I was annoyed at the suddenness and lack of resolution rather than being vitriolic at the feeling of having been cheated. And there was a “plot twist” towards the end that the characters seemed surprised by, but which had seemed obvious to me from page one. Maybe that’s because I’d read the book description and the characters hadn’t. Or maybe it’s because I watch a lot of TV sci fi.

Forewarned is forearmed. If you speak even a little Spanish and don’t mind cliffhanger endings, this won’t bother you. It’s the start of a series (it better be, with that cliffhanger ending!), and parts of the story are a little rough at the beginning as we are introduced to a future earth with an entirely new system of government.

Overall, The Evaporation of Sofi Snow is a fast-paced story with a lot happening all the time. 

Although I didn’t find it as compelling as The Hunger Games or the first two Divergent novels (let’s not mention the end of that trilogy), I’m sure it will find an audience with YA readers.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Mary Weber at her website.