The Rift Uprising by Amy S. Foster
(The Rift Uprising, Book 1)
Released: October 4, 2016 | Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian
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The first book in the fast-paced action-adventure, The Rift Uprising trilogy—an enthralling mix of speculative fiction and military thriller—in which a young soldier comes to question the monsters she’s trained to fight against . . . and the monsters she fights for.
Seventeen-year-old Ryn Whittaker is a an elite, enhanced soldier specially chosen to guard a Rift, a mysterious and dangerous portal to alternate Earths scientists cannot control or close. Trained from the age of fourteen, Ryn can run faster, jump farther, and fight better than a Navy SEAL—which is good when you’re not sure if a laser-wielding Neanderthal or an axe-wielding Viking is trying to make it through the Rift and into your world.
But the teenager’s military conditioning and education have not prepared her for the boy who crosses through—a confused young man, seemingly lost and alone. While there’s an immediate physical attraction, it’s his intelligence and curiosity that throws Ryn off balance. The stranger asks disturbing questions about the Rift that Ryn herself has never considered—questions that lead her to wonder if everything about her life and what she’s been told these past six years has been a lie. Are the Rifts as dangerous as her leaders say? Should her people really try to close them . . . or learn how to travel through them?
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Amy S. Foster’s inspiration playlist for The Rift Uprising is basically a pop-culture fever dream: Red Dawn, Sliding Doors, Imogen Heap, Legend, X-Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Hunger Games, and even Twilight all made their way into the mix.
REVIEW
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆
A long walk for a short drink of water.
This book threw me for a loop. The Rift Uprising is marketed as science fiction, and not in the loose “of course it’s sci-fi” sense. It’s shelved right alongside hard sci-fi novels. But once you start reading, it’s clear: this is pure YA.
Thankfully, I caught onto that early and was able to “switch gears,” which made it a lot easier to enjoy.
Now, aside from the occasional awkward make-out scene, the biggest issue here is that not much actually happens. The plot beats are very by-the-numbers:
Soldier girl goes on duty
Boy from another dimension shows up
Girl falls for boy
Boy warns her about her world
Girl discovers the truth
They escape together
That’s basically it. Formulaic, and it doesn’t dig deep into the characters, the world, or the story the way it could have.
That said, it’s still a solid read. There’s action, romance, aliens, and even a decent twist. There’s a certain comfort in its simplicity, it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, but it does deliver a fun, easy ride. As I’ve said about other YA titles: it won’t blow your mind, but if you’re looking for something light and entertaining, this will do the trick.
Side note: Honestly, The Rift feels like the book The 5th Wave was trying, and failing, to be. (Dear God, how The 5th Wave sucked.)
