Manifesting Destiny

LOCAL AUTHOR

In a world of rules and regulations, four teens must battle romance, a dysfunctional government, and spontaneous transformation into a creature — as if life wasn’t hard enough! In the story, when the four friends try to investigate the disappearance of a school friend, they come to the attention of the flawed officials and are forced on the run while their relationships and very forms are tested and change.

The plot of the book was fairly straightforward; however, what should have been big reveals and plot twists lost their impact as the rules of the world were not well established at the beginning, so instead of being surprising, many developments were just accepted. It also focused on romance and is full of love triangles and unrequited love, which may have prejudiced me against it, as they are not my favorite. Also, I found the pace of the book quite slow.

There are four major characters in the story, which is told from the point of view of Cee. While I really enjoyed her conversation with her alter ego/shapeshifted form and the well-developed character, I felt it focused too much on her rather than the others. Marcus was a complex character who was only lightly developed. As for Rand and Guin, while they featured often in the story, they were mostly one dimensional. I would hope to see more character development in the form of a series.
I would say this book is suitable for twelve- to sixteen-year-olds and appropriate for fans of the Hunger Games and Divergent.

I would recommend this book to fans of the young adult fiction genre and people who enjoy elements of a love story. Overall, I would say it was a good story, but I felt I needed a better understanding of the way that this world works before I was launched into the plot.