Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

Plus One by Elizabeth Fama

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux      

Publication date: April 8th 2014
My rating: 3 stars

Divided by day and night and on the run from authorities, star-crossed young lovers unearth a sinister conspiracy in this compelling romantic thriller.
Seventeen-year-old Soleil Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller prohibited by law from going out during the day. When she fakes an injury in order to get access to and kidnap her newborn niece—a day dweller, or Ray—she sets in motion a fast-paced adventure that will bring her into conflict with the powerful lawmakers who order her world, and draw her together with the boy she was destined to fall in love with, but who is also a Ray.
Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide, Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights, and a fast-paced romantic adventure story.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book. There were interesting aspects but none of them were strong enough for me to finish Plus One within two days. I was reading it for whole 6 days which is usually a sign I should give up. But I couldn't give up because I desperately wanted to see the awesomeness in it like the other early reviewers did. 

There was something missing. I'm not entirely sure what exactly. Maybe it was Sol's behavior in the first half. She was cold, brief and distant from D'Arcy who was nothing but helpful after he saw the mess Sol is in. I can't think of any other reason why it didn't work out. 

The world building was strange. Smudges- night dwellers and Ray- day dwellers don't mix. They live in what seems like totally different worlds. Ray's live with ease while Smudges live in poverty from the start of their lives till the day they die. While Rays have great education and carriers, a Smudge can only hope being a poor factory workers with little or no health care. 

Even though the origin of the divide was explained it still didn't make sense to me the authorities would keep it up after they resolved the problem. Maybe if was explained in another way. I don't really know... 

I don't want to end on bad note, with not saying anything positive about Plus One. It was one of those strange books you pick up to see what all the fuss was about. I did like the sort of open ending it had. The outcome was still visible so I hope the characters got what they wanted to. 

This is my first Elizabeth Fama book even though I bought a hardcover of Monstrous Beauty a while back. Still need to read it and even though I had mixed feelings about Plus One, it doesn't put me off of Monstrous Beauty. I just want to read it even more.