The Rules Review

TITLE The Rules (The Rules #1)
AUTHOR Stacey Kade
PUBLICATION April 23rd 2013 by Disney-Hyperion
READ March 27 to 28, 2013
SOURCE From the publisher via Netgalley for review

1. Never trust anyone.

2. Remember they are always searching.

3. Don’t get involved.

4. Keep your head down.

5. Don’t fall in love.

Five simple rules. Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane’s survival—and that of her adoptive father—depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans in a small Wisconsin town, to hide in plain sight at her high school from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) “project.”

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts her in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief’s son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening—and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules…

I’ve never been a big fan of sci fi, I have to admit that up front. When I look back at movies that I have watched and liked in the genre it’s more so the ones that come across as predominantly horror more than sci fi. There’s something about other beings living out there somewhere that absolutely frightens me. Then when you add in the fact that they are possibly much more advanced than us and could be lurking in places we don’t know, yikes! What I am trying to say is that I am fascinated at the idea of aliens. With The Rules, Stacey Kade has taken that idea and created a circumstance that made it feel more real than I could imagine and she did so quite well.

Ariane has known for the last 10 years that she isn’t really Ariane. She was rescued from the lab in which she was created and living in disguise out in the open, blending in with the population. I hadn’t known going into this that she was part extraterrestrial so as I found that out it was pretty exciting (had I just read the blurb I would have known, but you know how that goes.) I really liked Ariane. She was snarky and willing to defy people for what she believed was right. Her strong need to protect people who are being bullied made me respect her. I also loved how funny she was as she pieced together what it meant to be human and compared those things to daytime soap opera’s & cartoons that she had seen. I also came to really like the boy that she falls for, Zane. The story hops back and forth from Ariane’s POV to Zane’s and I think the method worked really well here. Each voice felt unique to themselves and I never had to question whose chapter I was reading at the time. Zane was the hot boy at his school, but he had so much going on inside that he became so much more than that. He was so sweet with Ariane and he had a lot to deal with at home with his not so great father.

One thing I wish that we got more of here was backstory. I was told that Ariane was half human, half extraterrestrial but I never got information on how that experiment came to be. Roswell is mentioned in passing but I would have liked some more detail into what GTX was and how they managed to get away with as much as they did. While I did appreciate that The Rules had a more contemporary feel with sci fi elements in that much of the focus was on the drama at Ariane’s school, I don’t think the balance was achieved very well. Much of the story is focussed on petty high school pranks (which was fun to read about, don’t get me wrong) but I think there should have been more focus on what led to Ariane’s existence and instead of constantly mentioning GTX I wanted to know exactly what the company was.

Reading through this review is funny, because in the beginning I said that I like sci fi that doesn’t really focus on sci fi but then I say I wanted more in the book. I’m someone who likes to have all the details and have my questions answered. Knowing that this is the first book in the series I know that those questions may be answered as the series progresses and I hope that is the case. If you are looking for a light science fiction read that comes across as more contemporary then this could be the one for you. I had a fun time reading it and am excited to read more in the series.