100letters

8 months ago

a ya book with aliens colonizing the earth? no, thanks. a ya book with aliens colonizing the earth written by fonda lee? sign me up! lee can turn basically anything into not just readable, but well-written material, so i was quite excited to read exo. it did not disappoint in the slightest. donovan reyes is the kind of guy everyone can root for, the chivalrous hero who sometimes makes questionable decisions but tries to do what's right. don't mistake him for a gary stu, though; he has real flaws. i liked how the story is written from the perspective of someone who's intimately familiar with aliens, not your typical invasion-fighting human. i also liked the nuance because what i normally see in sci-fi is aliens = bad, humans = good, but lee shows the good things that the zhree (what the aliens are called) did for earth too. the main character, donovan, is the son of a prime liasion (think diplomat with way more power), who maintains good relations with the zhree. understandably, not everyone on earth is happy with alien colonization; there's a faction of humans known as sapience who engage in violent terrorist attacks against zhree and other humans. donovan and his friends are exos, modified humans with fighting and pain withstanding abilities, and they police sapience sympathizers. but one day...disaster strikes. he is kidnapped by sapience. his father refuses to negotiate with the terrorist movement, and donovan is left to his own devices to survive. i'd like to applaud fonda lee for taking an unoriginal premise and making it so unique. i've read a bit of sci-fi before but never seen things exactly like zhree or exos. also, i'm a sucker for the enemies-to-lovers trope (donovan and anya) which was done well here. to summarize, exo is a spectacular book and if lee writes more in the future, i will sprint to the library (who cares if i got last place in track? i can run fast when i'm motivated by books).

Tyler W.

6 years ago

This book was an amazing book, and I love the story and tragedy that it pulled us into. There is so much crazy stuff that happens after Donovan gets kidnapped, and there is a plot twist later on in the book while Donovan is still kidnapped. I haven't read the next book in the series, but this book has been a wild ride, so I'm expecting Cross Fire (the next book) to be the same (AKA amazing). If I had to recommend or not recommend this book, I would SO recommend it. It has been my favorite book ever. I give a 100/10

rickster212121

7 years ago

What’s that thing lighting up on your wrist? Oh ummm… there’s something I didn’t tell you guys about where I’ve been and what I’ve done… Exo is a book by the author Fonda Lee she is an amazing author, she wrote other books like Zero Boxer, and crossfire those are great books as well. The action in this book is amazing and the mystery gave me chills a couple of times, and if you like a book with those WOW moments this book is definitely for you. There are really two types of character Donovan Reyes (The protagonists) but there are also aliens (The antagonists). The setting in this book is pretty futuristic if you ask me which makes the What’s gonna happen next” question so much better. The aliens have tried killing or destroying Earth before. This time though it’s a whole different story what will happen will the aliens with their high tech weapons come out on top or will Donovan and friends win it all. Donovan though, has a secret that he’s kept from his friends for a long time and they’re just finding out during an alien attack will Donavon tell them what they want to here or will he tell them the truth. Donovan and friends are only 15ish it didn’t give an exact age, but they know what they’re doing usually but an alien attack I guess you’ll have to find out that to. But really I’d recommend this book to anyone who is over the age of 9 who likes mystery or adventure books.