Alienation (C.H.A.O.S. Series) [Review]

Title: Alienation
Author: Jon S. Lewis
Labels: Juvenile Fiction | Science Fiction | Fiction
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Contains: Clean as a whistle.
Buy It: Amazon | Book Depository | The Publisher

My Rating: ★★★★☆ (It was good)
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Blurb From Goodreads: Along with his best friends Oz and Danielle, Colt McAllister is now training at the secret Central Headquarters Against the Occult and Supernatural Academy. But strange accidents seem to follow him...even with the security of the school grounds. What first seems random soon turns deadly. But who is targeting Colt?
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          Here I am again jumping the middle of a series :P. Will I ever learn? Anyway, I didn't have a hard time following along with what was going on. Now, I'm not well read in science fiction, so I can't say that this book sets the example for all the other books in this genre, but I thought the surrounding details of the plot were a bit...complicated. Maybe it had something to do with my jumping into the middle of it, but I that was it, because I understood everything completely. To the contrary, I thought everything was explained very well. The problem, in my opinion at least, was that there was simply too much that needed explaining. Every time a new chapter started I felt like there was quite a bit of explaining going on before anything actually happened.

          As for the actual plot, I thought it was great. The main character, Colt, is a newly recruited cadet of the CHAOS academy, and suddenly finds himself on a hit list of the directed of the academy, who inconveniently is also the father of Colt's best friend. It sooner becomes evident that even those closest to him have held things back, and not everyone can be trusted. Colt struggles with deciding who is on the wrong side, and more importantly, who he can trust.

          Alianation falls at about 250 pages, and is a quick, easy read. Colt is said to be sixteen, but from his character voice it felt like he was a bit younger. This would make a great read for young boys. I received this book for free from goodreads. I was not required to write a review nor a positive one; I was not compensated for this review.