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A review by cinnamonsam
Oasis by Katya de Becerra
The author Katya de Becerra has a lot of promise, but for me this book fell flat. My biggest issue is that the characters are one-dimensional which leads the reader to not caring about what happens to them. The characters are stereotypical high schoolers who only care about romantic relationships. To solidify this, they attend this archaeological dig that is being directed by the main protagonist's father - and we barely meet him! You would think he didn't care if his child and her friends even arrived at all. But the focus is on the high schoolers and their romantic entanglements.
The dialogue as a result also falls flat:
"We don't know anything about this place. It's a bad idea to split up, " Luke, quiet all morning, snapped at Lor.
"What can possibly happen?" Lori, face red, was turning more irate with each word.
Gee, Lori. I don't know...perhaps the dead body you found the previous day and the sabotaged water supply would be indicative that BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN. *insert eye roll*
Also - at one point Tommy pulls out a large knife and Alif says, "Never heard of archaeologists carrying around knives that size" ....and I can tell you as someone who has an archaeology degree and has been on many digs that they absolutely do carry around bowie knives/machetes.
Because the characters are one-dimensional, they don't seem to think about their survivability. Everything is romance-centric. If they had any brains at all, they would make some rudimentary spears, arm themselves in some way, because they would understand that wild animals are very real and very dangerous. At one point they go searching for food and they decide to look in a cave? What food are they hoping to find in a cave when their experience in the oasis thus far has been fruit in bushes/trees???
And don't get me started on the whole rescue "mirage". No one questioned this mirage beyond a passing, "oh, you saw that too? Maybe it was a mirage".
The entire story circles around the idea of the "tablet" this omnipresent entity that has them all trapped in this inception/matrix reality. But instead of being shocking and impactful, it just feels like the characters have zero agency to affect what is going on around them. The plot continues regardless of their actions. The only impactful thing they did was destroying the tablet in the end which felt like a plot-convenient act to tie up the book in a nice little bow.
1-star from me.
The dialogue as a result also falls flat:
"We don't know anything about this place. It's a bad idea to split up, " Luke, quiet all morning, snapped at Lor.
"What can possibly happen?" Lori, face red, was turning more irate with each word.
Gee, Lori. I don't know...perhaps the dead body you found the previous day and the sabotaged water supply would be indicative that BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN. *insert eye roll*
Also - at one point Tommy pulls out a large knife and Alif says, "Never heard of archaeologists carrying around knives that size" ....and I can tell you as someone who has an archaeology degree and has been on many digs that they absolutely do carry around bowie knives/machetes.
Because the characters are one-dimensional, they don't seem to think about their survivability. Everything is romance-centric. If they had any brains at all, they would make some rudimentary spears, arm themselves in some way, because they would understand that wild animals are very real and very dangerous. At one point they go searching for food and they decide to look in a cave? What food are they hoping to find in a cave when their experience in the oasis thus far has been fruit in bushes/trees???
And don't get me started on the whole rescue "mirage". No one questioned this mirage beyond a passing, "oh, you saw that too? Maybe it was a mirage".
The entire story circles around the idea of the "tablet" this omnipresent entity that has them all trapped in this inception/matrix reality. But instead of being shocking and impactful, it just feels like the characters have zero agency to affect what is going on around them. The plot continues regardless of their actions. The only impactful thing they did was destroying the tablet in the end which felt like a plot-convenient act to tie up the book in a nice little bow.
1-star from me.