Review: The Pledge by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Pledge

Author: Kimberly Derting

Reviewed by: Cassie

The Fairies Say: Creative and cute

Summary (from Goodreads.com)

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlies is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

Interestingly enough, I felt as if The Pledge had a fairy-tale feel to it. I doubt it was intentional, but the way things played out made me feel as if this was transported to the past in a place of princes and princesses. Of course, that's not what happens at all, but I just sort of got that vibe.

The Pledge begins with Charlie listening to her friend's dad scorning the lowest class in merchant-tongue, which the lowest class can't understand. She then goes off to school, and is offended by upper class girls who don't think Charlie or her friends can understand them. But Charlie can . . .

Charlie didn't really seem like a Charlie to me. Charlotte? Yes. But Charlie felt way to masculine for her. She's sort of delicate. She loves her close ones with a passion, and would do anything to save them. However, she did end up following people around and only showed sass to Max. Which, by all means, is great. But eventually even that dies down.

The other characters are interesting. Brook, the most. She seems like an attention-high, seductive dark beauty. But is she really? And then there's Eden. She was cool with her blue hair and tough personality. 

The world was a bit confusing. While we had our caste system and queens, we also had automobiles and lights. I'd think that the surroundings would be more explained and elaborated on, but we only get a cursory glance. We get maybe a page on the country's history, and that's all. How the queens developed special powers, we don't know. I guess we'll find out in the next book. Not sure if I'm going to read it.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Cassie