Publication date: November 25th 2013
Genres: Science Fiction, Thriller, Young Adult
Seventeen-year-old Mitzi and Deuce can recall how many drops of water were on a leaf from a rainstorm five years ago and conversations from last week, month, or year. They have the ability to remember every second of everyday—since birth.This gift has blessed Mitzi with a history of being sexually assaulted by researchers and abused by her own parents. She trusts no one. Likes no one. Deuce, however, is a high school standout. His gift has made him a superstar on the football field and his memory promises him endless opportunities.
When they both end up at an Alzheimer’s research facility under false proviso, they quickly realize this place isn’t what it seems to be. They endure crazy military-style tests, are forcefully drugged, and complete real-life simulations that haunt them.
Mitzi and Deuce have no idea what the researchers want to do with them or their memories. But one thing is clear: the researchers will go to any lengths to get what they want.
As soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I just knew that I had to read it. A story that takes real life psychological issues and expands them is always enough to get the Psychology graduate in me really excited, and that and more, is what Peaceful Genocide did.
I love when science or fantasy in a book is taken to a new level and given new meanings and more exciting prospects. Peaceful Genocide really hit me with how clever the storyline was. It felt very unique and not once did I guess where the story was going or what would become of the characters. It was truly refreshing to read, and I really commend the author for her intense writing style that had me on the edge of my seat throughout.
I loved the characters that we were introduced to, despite the way they outwardly projected themselves to keep themselves safe. Mitzi truly fascinated me from a psychological perspective and I felt for her on a deep level when I learnt about her past. The cat and mouse relationship she had with Deuce was great to read and really dynamic. It made me really connect to the characters and want the best for them, as it reminded me that they were only teenagers and because of a gift that they were born with, they had experienced and witnessed things that no teenager should have.
It was also great to see how different their gift had made their lives growing up. Whilst Deuce had found success by using his gift, Mitzi had only experienced pain and heartbreak, and it was great to see how the differences between parenting in their early lives effected them later on.
The story was paced brilliantly, and I loved the action scenes, which kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt a trickle of unease each time the ‘research participants’ were asked about their memories, and loved seeing Mitzi’s detective work to find out what the true intentions of the research was for. It gave me as a reader an insight into a corrupt research facility which could easily be a future possibility if science continues progressing at the fast rate that it is.
The only reason I couldn’t quite give this five stars was because of some of the grammatical errors that were quite frequent throughout the novel. It usually involved using the abbreviation of ‘it’s’ in the incorrect context, when ‘its’ should have been used. This sort of error was made quite a lot throughout the book and often made me lose my train of thought and have to re-read the sentence to take it in correctly before carrying on. My copy of the book also had a strange formatting and had strange paragraphing, but as it was a review copy, it is likely this has already been fixed for amazon copies.
Overall this was a superb, intriguing and exciting book which I can’t wait to see continue in future stories in the ‘Peaceful Genocide’ series.
4 Stars!
J.A. Reynolds
OldVictorianQuill 
Thanks so much for being a part of the blog tour and the review! I’m glad you enjoyed the story.
This sounds like a fantastic read and I love it when a story like this looks into the psychological aspects of things. Mitzi sounds like a character that would really interest me. It also sounds very fast paced and exciting!