Book Reivew: Possession by Elana Johnson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publish Date: June 7th, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-442-42762-8
Pages: 416
Source: Bought

Goodreads Synopsis:
Vi knows the Rule: Girls don't walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn...and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi's future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.
But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they're set on convincing Vi to become one of them...starting by brainwashing Zenn. Vi can't leave Zenn in the Thinkers' hands, but she's wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous--everything Zenn's not. Vi can't quite trust Jag and can't quite resist him, but she also can't give up on Zenn.
This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.

My Review:
Possession is a book that I had wanted to get my hands on before it came out. Unfortunately, that never happened and because of my busy schedule, I never got around to reading it. It wasn;t until the lovely people at Simon and Schuster sent me a review copy of Surrender, book 2 that I decided to finally get around to reading it.
Possession is a very interesting book. It's a dystopian read that is all about technology and control. Everyone is used to being controlled in these techish ways. There are Thinkers, and Greenies and Goodies and Baddies and so much more. Everyone seems okay with the way they live, except Vi. Vi is the main character and she's strong willed and stubborn. She's been in trouble many times over her lifetime with the head techies, and isn't showing signs of slowing down. In this world, you are matched with your mate, Vi is matched with Zenn. They're best friends and Vi is caught her last time with him.
The first part of the book wasn't what I thought it would be. I found it a little unorganized, and all over the place. Things to me just didn't add up and make sense. The part that really had me was the whole escape of Vi and Jag from the jail. They were both locked in the same cell (which I'm still not 100% sure of why), the Thinkers knew their potential, it just doesn't make sense to lock them up together. And with all of the technology and being able to brainwash people, you'd think that they could guard a jail cell a little better. To me, it just seemed to "they needed to excape, let's write them escaping" instead of thinking of a logical way and explaination for their escape. And was it just me, or did the guards give up completely?
Once I got past that, and more than halfway done the book, I was hooked. I needed to know what was going to happen with our beloved Jag and Zenn. The love triangle between the characters kept things interesting as well. Though Jag and Vi have a knack for getting upset with each other. The characters in Johnson's books are memorable and likable and I think that's what kept me reading.
We are left with quite a cliffhanger at the end of the novel, and I was thankful that I had the ARC of book 2 so that I could jump right into the continuation of things.
Overall, the book wasn't what I was expecting, the writing was a little finnicky for my liking, but the storyline, plot and characters were enough to make up for it.