Book Review and #BlogTour @Booktamins – Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat (5 stars)

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Title: Behind Blue Eyes

Author: Anna Mocikat

Published: 20^th of May 2020

Format: Ebook – 410 pages

Hello Hello! How are you?

It seems like the days are going by so fast here, I’ve been busy every day, but I’m going to have a blog hopping and bookcase organising day tomorrow!

I’m really excited to be writing this review today for my blog tour stop on the #Booktamins tour organised by Sandra for Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat. I don’t read much science-fiction at all, and definitely have never picked up a cyberpunk novel, but I was really intrigued by the blurb and decided to give it a go. Thank you to Sandra for inviting me to take part in this tour and for sending me a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

They are the perfect hybrid between human and machine. They are the next step in the evolution of mankind. And when they come after you, nothing in the world will save you…

Welcome to the year 2095. Society has overcome everything that made human life miserable. It has become perfect — so perfect that it needs killer cyborgs to hunt down anyone who disagrees with it.

Nephilim isn’t just any elite death squad member, she is the best. Genetically and cybernetically enhanced, she and others like her strike terror wherever they go. Knowing nothing besides this lifestyle, Nephilim believes that she’s part of a righteous cause. But everything changes for her after a hostile EMP attack. She suffers a severe system glitch. Disconnected from the grid, for the first time in her life, she begins doubting the system.

Shortly after the attack, she meets Jake, a 100% biological human, and she falls in love with him. Jake helps her discover that everything she had believed in was a lie. But there is no walking away from the system. And soon, Nephilim finds herself hunted by members of her own death squad.

In an era of deception, who can she trust? And in this brave new world, is there a place for love between a human and a cyborg? Behind Blue Eyes is a fast-paced, cinematic action story in a dystopian setting. It’s a modern-day version of 1984 – on steroids.

MY REVIEW

Behind Blue Eyes by Anna Mocikat is a science fiction, cyberpunk novel set in the year 2095 in which life as we currently know it today has been totally revolutionised towards a much more technological world. The world is split between three “conglomerates” and in the American part of this world, we follow Nephilim, a Guardian Angel who is basically one of the best killing-machines in the world. She is quite different from every other Angel, enhanced cyborg hybrids because she has doubts and feelings and appears to be very special.

As I have said before and you may already know, I hardly ever read science fiction because I don’t have a very scientific mind and a lot of the time, the information just goes over my head or bores me, but her, I got more of a Divergent vibe to the story and I really loved it. It’s a really fast-paced, action-adventure type book, the fact that all the characters are hybrids and 60% of their bodies are technologically enhanced to make them killing-machines did not bother me at all because of the emotional side to Nephilim’s narrative.

This book really surprised me and I can’t really put into words how much I enjoyed it for someone who doesn’t really get science. I did think that the timing of the book was a bit too soon, I don’t really see this to be possible in the next 70 years, but other than that, I don’t have any complaints about this book whatsoever.

The first six chapters are basically setting the scene for what comes next, which is the actual action part of the story, but I actually really appreciated having the little bit before to get to know the characters more and understand the world in which they live. It seems like a really complicated setting, but it’s basically the world we know today, just much more enhanced. I have to say that there is definitely a dystopian feel to this story and I really liked this element because it made all the cyborg bit less jarring to me. I really like dystopias, especially ones like this where the characters follow the system blindly until something drastic happens to them and they rebel. I’m definitely going to have to read this one again because it is very complex and dense and I’m sure that some things just went over my head in the first read.

I thought that all the characters were extremely well developed, especially Nephelim, Adriel, Jake and Metatron. I didn’t really like all of them because of who they are or what they do, but I have to say that they were well fleshed out and didn’t seem strange to me as you could expect from the plot, I don’t know why, but I just struggle to believe things about robots and cyborgs, but I found them all really believable. Metatron fascinated me the most I think and I can’t go into much detail about his character because you need to read this book for yourself to grasp everything, but he is very sadistic and I thought that his character development was well done.

The writing style was really fluid and it had me captivated throughout, which is very surprising because I can bore easily when it comes to this type of setting or plot as I don’t really find cyborgs very likely. Strangely, I really connected with the plot and the characters and now that I’ve finished this book, I can actually see something like this actually happening in the future.

MY THOUGHTS AND RATING

Overall, this was a really surprising and enjoyable book to me, and I’m sure that a reread will reveal much more to me that what I got from the first reading experience. It’s the type of book that you can appreciate right from the start, but the more you think about it, the more you think you may have missed and need to go back and experience again. This really made me think of Divergent, because I just binged that series in a matter of days, and I just keep thinking about it, over a year after finishing it.

I gave this book 5 stars because I enjoyed it so much while it was completely out of my comfort zone. I didn’t struggle to connect to the characters at all and I found the setting and plot to be well-executed and believable, that’s saying a lot for someone who doesn’t get science and evolutionary theories. I enjoyed this book immensely and I’m looking forward to rereading a physical copy of it, there were some beautiful quotes and really meaningful moments, but I was so enthralled in the actual action that I couldn’t put it down.

I would definitely recommend this book to science fiction lovers, it’s a great book and I’m not sure whether it is a series or a standalone, but I hope that we will get more one day because I need more from this world and these characters.

Thank you so much once again to Sandra and Anna for letting me take part in this tour and for sending me a copy of the book, it was such a great reading experience and one I’ll be sure to recommend for a long time.

That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed this review, see you soon, stay safe,

Ellie xx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – ANNA MOCIKAT

Anna Mocikat was born in Warsaw, Poland, but spent most of her life in Germany where she attended film school, worked as a screenwriter and a game writer for several years. Her “MUC” novels have been nominated for the most prestigious awards for Fantasy and Science-Fiction in Germany. In 2016 Anna moved to the USA where she continued her writing career. “Shadow City” was her debut in English in 2019. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina, and is a proud dog-mom of three rescues who assist her when she’s writing.

Anna’s Links: Website – Goodreads – Twitter – Facebook – Instagram

If you would like to purchase this book, you can find it here: Amazon UK (affiliate link) – Amazon FR (affiliate link) – Amazon US