Becky's View: Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh

Whispers in Autumn by Trisha Leigh
♦publisher: CreateSpace
♦release date: July 24th, 2012
♦paperback, 388 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: The Last Year, book 1
♦source: from publisher for honest review

In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots.

Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone.

Then she meets Lucas, everything changes.

Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race.

It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what.

And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

Review:
Whispers in Autumn is the start of a great series, definitely one that I plan to continue.  It takes place in a world that has been taken over by a mysterious alien race and humans have been drained of some of their most basic emotions to keep them compliant. In this world, there is one girl who, not only is unaffected by the alien's emotion control, but for reasons yet unknown to her, she jumps seasons and places and it's completely beyond her control.  She goes to bed and it's winter in one town, and wakes to find herself in spring in another town.  She never knows how long she will stay or what triggers the traveling, but it's all she knows and she has learned to pick up where she left off.  But this time it's autumn in Conneticut, and things are starting to change.  She has always known there were others like her, thanks to an enigmatic note hidden in a pendant she has always had that tells her she is a Dissident.  For the first time in her sixteen years, she thinks she might have actually found someone like her.  

The story is told in a voice that has a kind of starkness and fear running that gives us a perfect feel for Althea, a character that has lived with a huge secret all her life among a society where her emotions could easily betray her and put her in mortal danger.  You can feel the constant worry and urgency in her voice as she tries to stay under the radar at school and at home. On top of everything else, she has a strange power over heat and fire when her emotions get out of her control...just another thing she has to hide away.  When she meets Lucas, he seems so much like her, like he is struggling to hide emotions and stay inconspicuous.  And when she finally touches him, she discovers he is cold---so cold he can turn water to ice. She is sure she's found someone like her.  Finally together, not only can they be themselves, but also try to find out who they are, why they travel, a find out exactly what it is the alien Others want from both them and the human race. 

It's an exciting and intense dystopian story that really stood out to me at a time when dystopians are flooding the YA market.  I loved the sincerity of the characters despite being in such extraordinary and dangerous circumstances. I found the plot compelling and intricate and unexpected.  I always tend to be drawn to stories that make me look at basic human nature as something to be thankful for---being able to cry and laugh and even feel loss and pain. This one did a little of that, too. The ending is gutsy and exciting, as danger creeps in all around them and some interesting things get revealed. It definitely leave you craving more!

A truly fantastic story...I can't wait to see what happens next in this series! 

 Find Trisha Leigh online:  Website  •  Twitter  •  Facebook

Purchase Whispers in Autumn:  Amazon  •  BN.com  •  Indiebound  •  Book Depository

Check out the rest of the series: