This was a fun dystopian read with a gripping premise, would highly recommend for YA readers, but wasn't all that suitable for myself.

I love a dystopian novel so was very excited to receive an arc, unfortunately this was so disappointing.
Multiple character POV made for tricky reading and the base plot was just so dull

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book was unfortunately very disappointing. The writing flicks forward and backwards through time without clear distinction between the two, making the book needlessly hard and difficult to follow. I'm addition to this, the writing is full of contradictions sometimes within the same sentence. The book did not have a good flow and the characters showed a lack of consistency. Rape is used multiple times in the book for which I believe there should be a trigger warning for. At times this made me very uncomfortable, particularly when the MC tries to rape his so called love. It just doesn't add up and there are numerous plot holes.

As someone who enjoys dystopia novels, this book didn't quite hit it home for me. There was a lot of information shared which didn't pique my interest as it seemed to have dragged for me and afterwards, lost my interest. I did finish the book, and although it seemed to pick up in towards the last quarter of the book, I wasn't at all impressed.

Thank you Netgalley for a chance to read this novel for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book. I've read other dystopian novels like Divergent and The Hunger Games ... was hoping for interesting characters and an interesting storyline ... this book unfortunately had neither.

I feel that the relationship between Nico and El is odd in someways. I couldn't root for them because it doesnt seem like they have something to root for. The other characters in the book have interesting back stories ... and also ... maybe it would have been nice to know more about ZAMORA !!

This is book #1 of a series ... but nothing actually happens in this first book for me to want to know what is going to happen when/if they reach Zamora.

A Place Called Zamora by L.B. Gschwandtner is an enjoyable young adult series. Reminiscent of Ready Player One, The Hunger Games and George Orwell's classic 1984, this dystopian series ticks all the right boxes. Well formed back stories, character development, heart racing action and a tender budding romance we are all rooting for.

With multiple character POV, the story follows Nico and El, two teenage orphans struggling to get by in a politically corrupt city where murder and starvation are the norm and brutality rules.
When 18 year old Nico is selected to compete in a cynical death race where only one rider can survive, a series of events propel him and El into mortal danger. With the Regime hunting them and the city in chaos, Nico and El must find a way to flee for their lives and go in search for the mythical utopia, Zamora.

I really enjoyed this novel, giving it 4 stars.
Highly recommended, I look forward to reading the next installment in this series.

A cruel inner circle rules over a brutal dystopian city where roaming gangs regularly have street fights and there is always someone watching. The ruling class holds an annual motorcycle race where thirteen 18 year old males are selected to participate. Only one will survive and that winner gets his pick from an array of beautiful young women. Niko is selected to participate in the race. He is secretly in love with El, a stunningly beautiful young woman who was raised by 2 elderly nuns.

This book is a combo of dystopian classics like 1984 and more modern works like The Hunger Games. I had high hopes for this book since I am a big fan of dystopian stories. The narrative alternates between Niko, El, leaders of the Regime and a few other characters. I don't mind narratives from multiple perspectives but this one was tricky to read. It could in part be due to the formatting of the ARC. It would just shift perspectives without warning. This book didn't quite hit the mark for me.

CW: violence, murder, child murder, child abuse, sexual assualt, rape, mention of pedophillia, ableism, fatphobia, homophobia, pushing of Christianity as moral, victim blaming

This is the worst book I’ve read so far in 2020. It’s up there among the worst books I’ve read ever. I only read the whole thing because I don’t think that it’s fair to give a book that I DNF’d 1 star and a full negative review, and at least one of the criticisms I have for this book required me to have read the whole thing to ensure that it was valid. This book isn’t just bad, it’s harmful. This will be a rant review, there will be spoilers, and I will not be polite.

The worldbuilding was awful, and at times what little of it there was contradicted itself a few pages later. The world is a fairly generic dystopia, nothing about it stood out to me, and it wasn’t particularly imaginative. The villain is named Villinkish, for crying out loud. A lot of people live in deep poverty and struggle to feed themselves on a day to day basis. Oh! Except for this old woman who sells fresh produce, sandwiches, and ice cold cans of lemonade across the whole city that she gets from ~somewhere~ and everyone’s able to buy things from her every day. The Regime (that’s what the government is officially called in this book, by the way) decides that all the children have to be surrendered and raised by the state. Oh! Except for a lot of people apparently, with no rhyme or reason as to who gets to stay with their family and who gets taken away. I would put actual money on this just being an excuse to get Niko away from his parents, and Gschwandter completely forgot about it afterwards. Religion has been completely outlawed, and all the priests were hunted down and executed years ago. Oh! Except for a convent that was allowed to keep running for some reason, and this one priest who somehow survived and is able to keep being very public about being a priest and everybody knows him and he doesn’t get executed because.......... I have no idea.

In addition, this book was straight up badly written. There were often sentences that made no sense, which made it obvious to me that this badly needed at least one more round of edits, though I doubt that would’ve managed to save this mess. When sentences did make sense, the writing style was overly simplistic. It read like a children’s book, and a bad children’s book at that. Which makes no sense considering the amount of times that rape and sexual assault were used throughout the story.

The story was mostly told out of chronological order. This wouldn’t be a problem if the flashbacks had been clearly defined as such, or if they’d been woven seamlessly into the story. But they were not. Every single POV and time switch was done with nothing but a new line, with no indication of what was going on, and with no logic to them at all. This had the end result of the majority of a section titled ‘The Aftermath’ mostly showing events from before the incident that its supposed to be about the aftermath of, and there being at least one scene that I legitimately cannot place anywhere in the storyline as the flashback shown immediately after it overtook and contradicted the original scene. It gave me the impression that Gschwandter had heard the writing advice to write scenes in whichever order you want to, which is usually good advice, but then she forgot to move them into their correct places afterwards.

Circling back to the use of rape and sexual assault, it was all just there for shock value, and to emphasise just how evil some of the people in this world are. To me it just communicates a lack of creativity on Gschwandter’s part. Also, a major incident in the book is when Niko nearly rapes El, only changing his mind at the last second. El cuts his face during the struggle. First of all, I don’t know how Gschwandter expected me to be able to sympathise with this character for the rest of the book, because I was certainly unable to. Second, El cutting her would-be rapist’s face and Niko nearly raping someone are treated as equal crimes by absolutely everybody in the book, without exception. This victim blaming isn’t condemned by a single person, not even El, which results in a narrative that pushes the idea that if you defend yourself when you’re getting raped then you’re just as bad as your rapist. This is appalling and disgusting. Third, the almost rape isn’t actually shown to the reader through the ordinary narration, but through both El and Niko telling side characters their side of the story after the fact in excruciating detail. This was a defining moment in the book, and a major incident for both these characters. And it wasn’t shown, it was told. Either have the guts to show (not tell) what you want to include in your character’s storylines, find a better way of telling (The detail wasn’t necessary! It all boils down to a single sentence and that was truly all that needed to be said!), or just don’t include it at all.

Near the end of the book, El suddenly had major wilderness survival powers, despite having been raised in a convent for most of her life and never having had any reason why she should possibly know how to make cups out of leaves. Because of course she does.

If the only reference to queer people in your book is in the context of someone maybe being a pedophile, then you have written a bad book. It’s that fucking simple. Gschwandter has written a bad book.

The narration contained multiple incidences of ableism and fatphobia, and unsurprisingly these went unchallenged and uncondemned.

If I had known that this book was going to push Christianity as being the last bastion of goodness in an otherwise awful world, that would have been enough for me to not pick this book up. This isn’t something that I’m interested in reading about at all, and nothing about this book’s marketing mentioned that this was the approach that it would be taking. There are also several references to the crusades, specifically framing them as a good as positive thing for the church to have done. There’s also no mention of how other religions were treated during and after society’s collapse. All that anyone cares about is Christianity.

I’m a firm believer that, when writing, you should google the names you’re planning on using in your book at least once, even if that name is for a minor character who isn’t going to be on more than one page. Do me a favour and google the name ‘Osana’. What’s the main association with that name? Is it something that a sensible author should want their book to remind the reader of, even for a moment? I could give Gschwandter the benefit of the doubt and assume that she got the name off of a baby name website and just didn’t check it, or I can assume that it’s a deliberate reference to yet another fictional mess. Come to think of it, it would be fitting if the link was intentional. This character is only mentioned once, and doesn’t appear on page, but seeing the name ‘Osana’ on the page gave me such a visceral reaction that I had to step away from the book for a bit.

When I saw that Gschwandter had included questions for book clubs at the end of the book, and on her website, I couldn’t help but laugh. No self respecting book club would discuss this book using those questions. If they discussed it at all, it would be about how terrible it is. A Place Called Zamora is a masterclass on how to get absolutely everything wrong. If I’d written anything that was even a fraction as bad or harmful as this book, quite frankly I’d be embarrassed, and it would never see the light of day.

I requested this because I share my name with one of the protagonists. More fool me I guess. Obviously, I don’t recommend this to anyone.

I wanted to love this book. The concept reminded me of The Light at the Bottom of the Sea, which I enjoyed. But the race is the only similarity. It was really hard to read Part 1 (which is where I stopped) because there were no chapters. It was a lump of text. Yes, things happened, but there was no tension. The way the story was written (with lots of bouncing around) made it difficult to follow. This might be better if there were clear distinctions between the chapters, but I am not invested enough to wait and see if they’re added. El and Niko’s relationship development was the only positive but I’m just a sucker for dystopians with romance of any kind (even if it was barely there).

1984 meets Ready Player One and The Hunger Games in this disturbing dystopian future. Enjoy heart racing action, a tender romance and an interesting storyline for the main characters. I enjoyed the book, but didn’t love it. There seemed to be lots of information and little story, which made the book drag a little. All in all, an intriguing book for dystopian fans.

Thanks to the publishers for giving me a copy of this book.

It's been awhile since I read a Dystopia and sadly this one didn't bring too much to the table.
The start is a little bit slow but once you get trough the first chapters the story starts to get a fast pace which i really enjoyed.
The books is really centered on the romance and evn though it was cute i felt like there was some development missing.

A Place Called Zamora is the start of a new series that has lot of potential and will flourish even more in the next books.

It’s a dystopian novel perfect for fans of Divergent and An Ember in the Ashes! The beginning was a little slow for me, but then it picked up somewhere in the middle and you’ll love it if you have the patience to read through the beginning. I think it’s worth reading!

A Place Called Zamora: The Zamora Series, Book One is a really nice series opener as it sets out the story and the world it's set in. The only thing it lacks is more relationship development between the characters, we are told about it but we don't actually get to see it, so hopefully, in book two, we get to see a bit more of that.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of A Place Called Zamora in exchange for an honest review.

Put simply, I don't know who the target audience here is. From the narrative style, relationship depth, pace and general verbiage, I'd be quick to say that A Place Called Zamora would flourish best with younger readers (probably placing it near the lower-aged end of middle grade) but this book is full of swearing and very, very adult themes.

For an older audience though, I also don't think this works. Our core relationship is told to us, but we're really shown 1 or 2 actual relationship (and a lot of 'they kept doing more cute things between these plot points') building moments, before the dramatic 'something awful happens and the couple momentarily doesn't trust each other' scene, but since we spent more time there than on actual relationship building, as an older reader who's used to being shown relationships instead of just being told they exist and that we should root for them in books dealing with this kind of subject matter, I just couldn't buy into that part of the story and since everything is very centered around the relationship, I ultimately never bought into the plot either.