"The Survivors" by Amanda Havard

THE SURVIVORS - Amanda Havard (released April 2011)
(Book one of the The Survivors series)

I wouldn't have picked up this book on my own.  The only reason I ordered it was because I got an Advanced Reader's Copy of the second book of the series and I didn't want to start on book 2.

In 1692, twenty-six children were accused of being witches in Salem, Massachusetts.  Instead of being executed, the children were lead into the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter and left to die, but fourteen of them survived.  Not only did these fourteen survive, but they discovered they were immortal, and each had an unique superpower.  Throughout the centuries, they reproduced and built an isolated colony (a lot like the one in M. Night's "The Village") to raise their descendants.  Each Survivor stops aging around the age of the twenty and develops their power.  The Survivors have told their descendants that humans and the outside world are evil, but that doesn't stop Sadie from wanting to leave.  After 145 years, she finally leaves, and discovers that the Survivors aren't the only immortals in the world.

The book has a really slow start.  I almost stopped reading it, but once you get past the first three chapters it starts to pick up.  The book feels like Twilight meets "The Village" meets... something else I read recently.  I found it hard to sympathize with the protagonist, Sadie, and her quest to find out what she is and how to kill herself.  It's a different concept having someone who wants to end their immorality, but it also goes against her Puritan religion that they bring up several times.  So does the villages' idea on procreating outside of wedlock.  I felt like there were several issues with her ideals matching the religion that she was raised in, which leads to a big question mark about the love story in the book.  I like Everett and the Winter family, but I don't feel all that invested in Everett and Sadie's love affair.  I WANT to care, but I just don't yet.

I liked discovering the different immortal/supernatural species long with Sadie.  Different myths about supernatural creatures always fascinated me.  I liked seeing how this author thought different species lived, what they were called, and what powers they possessed.  I found that fascinating.

Final say: Overall, the story did pique my interest enough to read the second book, but it took a while for me to get invested in the story.  I don't feel this book is a "must read", and I never would have been compelled to read it if I hadn't received the second book first.  I feel like there are better supernatural/forbidden love/morality-questioning stories out there than The Survivors.  Ultimately, I would pass on this book.