The 100 by Kass Morgan

Received for review
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks (29 Aug 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1444766880
ISBN-13: 978-1444766882

In the future, humans live in city-like spaceships orbiting far above Earth's toxic atmosphere. No one knows when, or even if, the long-abandoned planet will be habitable again. But faced with dwindling resources and a growing populace, government leaders know they must reclaim their homeland... before it's too late.

Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents are being sent on a high-stakes mission to recolonize Earth. After a brutal crash landing, the teens arrive on a savagely beautiful planet they've only seen from space. Confronting the dangers of this rugged new world, they struggle to form a tentative community. But they're haunted by their past and uncertain about the future. To survive, they must learn to trust - and even love - again.

Cover:  When I first saw this cover online, I skipped over it.  It didn't grab my attention in any way.  But when a copy turned up as a surprise for review, I fell in love with the cover.  I was totally converted.  It reminds me of the artwork and movie posters for Star Wars: The Original Trilogy.  I love the images in the text, and then the bright white background.

I really enjoyed this book.  As I've said before, dystopian novels are not normally my 'go to'.  Of course there have been dystopian novels I've loved - including Divergent and Acid.  But I'm always a little wary of picking up a dystopian.
This one had the premise of Across The Universe in that the humas race has evacuated Earth and taken up residence on a space ship for the past three hundred years.
I really liked that we had so many different character points of view- Clarke, Wells, Bellamy and Glass.  This was definitely more a character driven story, than an action one.  There's actually very little action.  You have these 100 convicted young adults being dropped onto Earth to test if the humans can go back, a corrupt system and a slowly deregrading ship should lead to intense, action filled adventure.  But it doesn't, the action is always just poised- ready to happen but nothing really comes from it.  Of course it should develop in the next book.  But this one really focuses on introducing us to the main characters and giving us their interesting back stories- Glass had to give up the boy from a lower class she loved or he'd die, Clarke was tried for treason after her scientist parents were executed, Bellamy risks everything to save his sister, and Wells would do anything to protect Clarke.
This book should be boring.  But for sme reason I just loved it.  I loved reading about these characters, and I'm really interested to see what happens to them next (talk about your cliffhanger ending).
Over all I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It won't be everyone's cup of tea because of it's lack of action, but it hit the spot for me.  I sped through it in just a couple of days.
4/5 stars.