Book Review: Measure of Days by Sophy Layzell

---

Synopsis:

Deter Edison is an ordinary girl, or so she thought…

After a brutal kidnapping, Deter finds herself propelled into a world that she knows nothing about. Her scientist captors want something that only she has – an incredibly rare gene – and they’ll stop at nothing until they get it.

Feeling betrayed by her guardian, Amery, Deter’s world turns upside down when she’s plummeted into a war with the government and her captors. She must flee to London to seek protection there, but she doesn’t know who she can trust. And even if she does make it to safety, how can she remain hidden from the Establishment?

---

My Review: 

I enjoyed the premise of this story and I think that it has potential but I found myself struggling with the narrative of the story.

The premise of a Flesh-Eating Disease (FED) and the story highlighting the social-economic gap was something that I did enjoy. However, there were a lot of different character POVs and it made it difficult to bond with any of them. 

The story quickly flits between the different perspectives and settings of the novel. I wasn’t sure what was happening from one chapter to the next. The chapters are short so you never stay with one character long enough to really get their story.

Another issue that I had was that I didn’t find the main protagonists Lincoln and Deter particularly interesting. The story moves so quickly at the beginning that the decision that Deter made seemed to come out of nowhere. We didn’t really get to know the Faction before the story quickly moved them from the headquarters. A character that I did find a little more interesting was Maria. You could see clearly what her motivations were but we didn’t see enough to connect to her. We never got to see the progress from the hairdressers to where she was at the end. 

The changing perspective and scenery took me out of the story. I found it extremely difficult to connect with the narrative. I wish I was able to connect to the story more because it was a premise that I found interesting. 

Thank you NetGalley and Book Guild for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

---