REVIEW: "Oppression" by Jessica Therrien

Book Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):
Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

My Thoughts:

2012 is the year of the debut authors. Anyone else agree? Jessica Therrien has a wonderful story here and thankfully, she has the writing skills to make it work! I haven't read many books with a mythology setting but this was definitely an interesting spin on Greek mythology and I was intrigued from page one. Here is a fair warning, make sure you start this book early in the day or you won't sleep much, you will NOT want to put it down.


Elyse (Ellie) is such a wonderful lead character. I honestly wanted to jump into the story and be her friend, I didn't want to watch from the sidelines. This book has just about everything you could want. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, and I think I even felt my heart break. There are some really great plot twists and you are kept guessing. Oh, you want to know more about the romance? One word: William. Trust me, you will understand soon enough.

A few things confused me while I was reading. *SPOILER ALERT* The characters are close to 100 years old even though they look like teenagers so I have a few questions: Why are they all in school now and not 30+ years ago? Why do they have so many teenage behaviors, thoughts, and actions? *END SPOILER* Aside from things like that, I could just scream about how wonderful it is. It's a refreshing change of pace in the YA book world for me and it came at just the right time.


The one thing I am VERY grateful for with Oppression is that it wasn't left with a huge cliffhanger but it did leave me wanting more. Unfortunately this book just came out last week so we have a while to wait before we find out what happens! Pick this one up as soon as possible, I can almost guarantee you won't regret it. And if you use a NOOK or Kindle.. you can get the ebook for just $2.99!! GO! GO! GO!

5 out of 5 stars