Book Review
Title: Nemesis (Project Nemesis Book 1) by Brendan Reichs
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The opening to Nemesis was actually really interesting and I don’t know why I put it off for so long. We are introduced to Melinda “Min” was for every two years on her birthday since she was eight has been murdered by a mysterious man only to wake up in a field unharmed. There is also a big Announcement coming in the present as there is an asteroid that will possibly destroy Earth and the Announcement is to tell the people whether the asteroid is actually going to destroy Earth. When she was young she told her mother and a man named Doctor Lowell about them and was given medication to deal with it but she has always thought that there is more going on but no one is telling her anything. She doesn’t tell anyone now not even her best friend Thomas “Tack” but she is struggling with her situation as she lives with her mother and they are quite poor and Tack comes from an abusive family. I loved the scene where they blew up the school bully’s car but one of that group, Noah stands out to me as having a possible connection to Min. The man who kills her though is also strange both in the present and the in flashbacks as he is expressionless as he kills Min but whenever she asks him why he is killing her he just apologizes and I can’t wait to see where the story goes.
Very quickly things start getting interesting as the man who kills Min has never left any evidence behind making her question her sanity until this time she finds a boot print exactly like the ones he was wearing when he killed her. For Min this is huge especially since the asteroid is going to miss Earth she knows that it will happen again unless she can figure out how to stop it. She debates telling Tack about the killings but doesn’t want to lose her only close friend and then she remembers the kinship she had with Noah as a child. Through a flashback we learn that all the children were subjected to Government tests for something called Project Nemesis when they were really little and the only two children taken were Min and Noah, yet Min can’t remember what happened to her during the time she was taken only what happened after and how her mother was convinced that it was necessary. This means that Min’s mother is aware of what happened to her and she might be able to get some information out of her but with the Government moving in again I am not so sure. Min has had enough of noting knowing what is going on so she recruits Tack to break in Doctor Lowell’s office to find her file and find out what is going on once and for all. However, the breaking and entering leaves them with more questions than answers. They learns that Min and Noah are patients A and B in the Project Nemesis whatever that is and unlike their classmates who have been watched closely and well documented there seems to be absolutely nothing on Min and Noah other than some consent forms signed by their mothers so Min’s mother does have some knowledge of what Project Nemesis is and what has been happening to Min which would explain her strange behaviour most of the time.
They don’t get long in the office before someone returns but they do learn from a memo that Project Nemesis is supposed to be ending in ten days and that was dated two days before. This means whatever Noah and Min are tied up in is coming to a close in just over a week and Min knows she needs to find out if Noah knows anything about Project Nemesis as their fates seemed to be bound together at the moment but we don’t get much more than that for now as we switch over to Noah’s perspective. So far Nemesis is turning out to be an intriguing mystery similar to I am Number Four and I can’t wait to find out more about Project Nemesis and how it relates to Min and Noah. Noah was a more gripping character than Min for me but now we can clearly see the differences between them. Noah unlike Min believes he is mentally ill and that Doctor Lowell is helping him so he trusts the man completely despite his odd behaviour in recent days and he tells him everything about the dreams in the hopes of making them go away while Min doesn’t trust Lowell and keeps everything close to her chest. We also see from Noah’s “dreams” that when the mysterious man comes to kill him he is smoking which he has never done before and he also tells Noah that this is going to be the last time which was the most interesting thing as he has never said anything apart from I’m sorry before. When Min approaches Noah explaining that there is something going on and they are at the centre of it, it causes Noah’s anxiety to spike but it stays with him. Min did omit the fact the Government was involved and they seem to be Guinea pigs for Project Nemesis though. We also see strange things happening like a huge number of minor earthquakes and millions of bees dropping dead for no apparent reason and I have a feeling everything is going to be tied to Project Nemesis. I also liked in Noah’s chapters we get transcripts of his sessions with Lowell which are something he keeps closely guarded at all times.
Noah doesn’t dismiss Min but he doesn’t truly believe her either which makes her angry at him because of the evidence se has collected. However, this does sow a seed in Noah’s mind and he begins to notice odd behaviour with Doctor Lowell especially when he expresses concern over the medication and therapy not working to solve his issues and when he brings up inconsistencies with the story that Lowell told him was true. The straw that breaks the camel’s back though is when he sees Doctor Lowell and other people he knows with the man who has been killing him over and over and realises that he is a real person meaning the dreams are real and Lowell has been lying to him for years. This sends Noah into a state of panic but he manages to calm himself down enough to realises that for the man to appear every two years on his birthday he needs to be staying close by and manages to figure out he is staying in a lodge owned by Noah’s father. He travels to the lodge, armed and ready to confront the mysterious man but he isn’t there. Despite this Noah is able to learn that the strange weather phenomena are connected to the man and Project Nemesis and they have been tracking them as both he and Min seem to be microchipped or something similar which causes him to flee from the lodge.
Both Noah and Min realise that they have to speak again order to find out what the other actually knows and this was an amazing scene as each are missing vital knowledge that the other has and both confess to being killed by the mysterious man which absolutely blows Tack’s mind. Now that the three of them are working as a team they decide to come up with a plan to find out more about Project Nemesis. They decide to break into the military facility they saw the troops heading into a few days before as that is their best bet at getting the information they want. They decide to do it that night and while they manage to get into the facility before they can even think about getting into any of the buildings an alarm goes off and they are surrounded in minutes. The soldiers want to shoot them all but when Min announces them by name, Sheriff Watson explains that Min and Noah are betas and Tack is part of the experimental group and it would harm the Project to kill them. The solider agree to let Min and Noah go but they want to shoot Tack so the Sherriff steps up killing the solider allowing the trio to escape. Min does press him for information but he doesn’t give them anything but tells Min he believed in her the most and the information they want will come to them soon. As the trio escape, Sherriff Watson buys them time although he does sacrifice his own life in the process which is a sucker punch for Noah who has been very cushioned up until this moment. As everything begins to dissolve around the trio we begin to see Noah and Min being drawn together and I believe it is for a reason. Before they can come up with another idea their entire class is rounded up by soldiers and taken to the military facility where Tack’s father is shot trying to get to his son. Nothing is explained to the kids as the ground erupts around them and very quickly they are all gassed waking up in the clearing that Min wakes up in after her murders and everyone else is gone. Before the gassing several kids make references to the Hunger Games and I have a feeling that this is going to be much worse considering the state the world was going to in the days and hours leading up to the gassing where Min in the first to wake up.
When they wake up they realise that everyone apart from the 64 students has vanished including the animals. A few also notice that the buildings and the mountain that were damaged during the earthquakes have mysteriously repaired themselves and a few comment that it is almost like they are in an alternate universe. Most of the kids also experienced the same sensation as they were gassed of their minds being ripped apart and then being put back together which I feel is very significant and might explain what is happening to them. However, Ethan quickly establishes a dictatorship and forces everyone to do tasks in order to receive food as his father was the owner of the only supermarket in town and with the bridge still down and the mountain pass blocked they have no choice but to go along with it for now. Noah is torn between bending to Ethan’s will or fighting but as soon as he learns that Ethan has armed his inner circle and isn’t afraid to threaten people with violence and carry it out he knows he has no choice but to keep his head down. This is very quickly turning into a combination of The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner and Gone which I was really enjoying. Min, Tack and Noah are trying to figure out a plan to get away from Ethan but Tack keeps pushing Ethan’s buttons so they have no choice but to comply for now. I can’t wait to see what Min, Noah and Tack come up with if Tack doesn’t get himself killed first.
Things take a darker turn very quickly when Ethan murders take for what he considers treason and throws Min in jail while sending Noah out with a search party into order to find the other students who fled. Noah doesn’t want to leave Min to her fate and when he learns there are other search parties he returns and frees Min and they decide to head to the ski lodge to evade Ethan and the others. However, along the way they encounter Hector who decides to jump from canyon killing himself. After this the traumatised Min and Noah find their way to the trailer park and send the night there but Ethan and his gang quickly close in on them dragging them back. Things get strange though when they encounter Hector who they all saw die, alive and well and he mentions waking up somewhere else completely unharmed, Min and Noah instantly connect this to what happens to them on their birthdays and realise that Hector must be one of the other two betas. It is here they learn that Tack’s body is missing as well meaning he might also be alive and they flee to find him. Noah realises that Hector’s spawn sight is in the south while his and Min’s are to the north and west meaning that logically Tack’s would be out east to complete the points of a compass and they manage to find him alive and well near where Sherriff Watson was killed but I have no idea what is going to happen in the final portion of the novel as Nemesis is the first book in a trilogy.
The ending of Nemesis went in some directions I wasn’t expecting as a reader but I found myself really enjoying them. I don’t want to talk too much about the ending of Nemesis as it reveals some things that I spent the entire book waiting to find out and I don’t want to spoil that for other readers. All I can say about the ending of Nemesis was it took a turn I really wasn’t expecting and if you’ve seen Sword Art Online then it follows a similar theme although not exactly and some of the twists involving the characters were some of the best I’d read in a long time and I can’t wait to read Genesis and the finale to see what the endgame is with this series. Highly recommended!
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Comments