Sneak by Evan Angler

I should mention from the start that I haven't read the first book in the series. But nonetheless, I loved this book.

Sneak is set in a world that reminds me of 1984. Everyone's happy, everyone's united, and everyone has a Mark. Without the Mark, you can't buy anything, you can't own anything. Sounds familiar? Yup, this is taken from the book of Revelation. But, this story is very different from the normal end-times genre book.

For one thing, not all the markless (those without a mark) are Christian. All citizens get the Mark when the Pledge themselves, so there are many who, for one reason or the other, refuse to be marked. In fact, most of the characters don't know of Christianity - these are teenagers born into this world, who have never heard of a religion that "disappeared" a long time ago. Which made it really refreshing to see the characters journey towards Christ, something that came of their own free will as they fight against DOME (the people who are Marking others).

There are a few characters in the book, but for Sneak, the four that I noticed/paid the most attention to were: Logan, Peck, Erin and Hailey. Logan is arguably the book's main character - he's the one who's on the run from the authorities, and the one who's made the most "ruckus". Peck is the leader of the Dust, a group of Markless kids. Erin is Marked, and she was a traitor. Hailey is part of the Dust. They know each other because (and here is where it's a bit hard to explain) - Peck's good friend Lily is Logan's sister (and the two are trying to rescuse her). I don't quite remember about Erin and Hailey, but I imagine they went to the same school.

The four characters were engaging, and I found myself drawn into their personal struggles. And at the end of the book, each character grows.

Since I hadn't read the first book, I found it hard to keep up at the begining, because the book moves at a fairly fast pace. But after a few chapters, I got into the rythmn and couldn't put the book down.

This is a really original take on the End-Times genre, and you can see the influence of Dystopian fiction on it. And it makes perfect sense, at the end of the world, what we should expect is Dystopia, not Utopia.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.