Abandoned by Booklikes

I was worried I wouldn't like this one since I hard disliked Roth's "Divergent." This book though hit me in a way I wasn't expecting. Roth talks about the last days on Earth before an asteroid hits and wipes out life on the planet as people know it. What I found interesting is that many people realized this was going to happen and that they still went on, had children, etc. That part of the book was interesting to me. I wish that Roth had focused more on the before part, which is the only reason why I gave this 4 stars. There was a lot that I wanted explained, that was not by the time I got to the end of this book.

"Ark" follows a young horticulturalist, Samantha. Samantha and the last few scientists on Earth are classifying flora and fauna that will be put aboard an "ark" that will eventually travel to a new Earth called Terra. Samantha though has different plans for heself which eventually change after she starts taking with one of the scientist at the camp she is at named Hagen.

So Samantha's history was a bit scattered I thought. We find out about her mother and father in parts, but then we hear about what happened towards them in the end. I was able to piece together that somehow when Samantha's father and mother were young (maybe) they were told about an asteroid that was going to be the so-called "planet killer." To live in a time where you are told that the world you know is one day going to be over was a bit chilling. I wanted more about that, but it's a short story, so you can't ask for everything.

The character of Hagen was interesting and I loved the little bit of scenes that we get between him and Samantha.

The writing I thought was good and the flow too. We start off with two weeks left before the final two arks leave Earth. So it's a slow count-off. We have Samantha remembering her parents, and things that happened to her (her first school dance, slow dance, going to Warren Field with her father). 

The setting of this book is unknown. It's a dystopia novel, so let's guess Earth's future plus or minus a thousand years or so. I was interested in how people found a new Earth, and how they got everyone off, etc. It seemed so interesting to me that this happened with barely any skirmishes. Based on watching disaster movies I thought it be an ugly lottery system and most of the planet destroyed or something.

The ending was moving and loving. Life goes on, no matter what.