Review: Wisteria by Bisi Leyton

Title: Wisteria
Series: Wisteria, Book 1
Author: Bisi Leyton
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: Aprox. 275 Pages, 484 KB
Publication Date: August 15, 2012
Available Formats: Kindle Edition, eBook
Source: IO Book Tours
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Get it @: Amazon | Smashwords | Goodreads

Book Description:

Sixteen year old Wisteria Kuti has two options—track the infected around the Isle of Smythe or leave the only known safe haven and face a world infested with flesh eating biters. But even with well-armed trackers, things go wrong and Wisteria ends up alone facing certain death, until she is rescued by the mysterious Bach. Uninfected, Bach is able to survive among the hordes of living dead.

Eighteen year old Bach, from a race known as The Family, has no interest in human affairs. He was sent here to complete his Great Walk and return home as a man—as a Sen Son. The Family regard humans as Dirt People, but Bach is drawn to this Terran girl, whom he has never seen before, but somehow knows.

Hunted by flesh eaters, cannibals, and the mysterious blood thirsty group called Red Phoenix, Wisteria and Bach make their way back to the Isle of Smythe, a community built on secrets and lies.

This book is classified as Young Adult Paranormal Romance, and although it fits the bill, the story itself pulls from a wider set of norms. In fact, the novel has many elements of the horror and the sci-fi genre. To begin with, the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a scientifically created virus has turned most of humanity into flesh –and brain– eating zombies. Sprinkle the mix with a healthy dose of mostly older sexy teenage aliens and inter-dimensional traveling and you have the recipe for great entertainment.

We follow Wisteria and Bach as they go back and forth between regular teenage problems –such as love, high school, mean girls, the outcast, family expectations vs. their own desires, etc. – and the more serious, much more pressing (and oftentimes depressing) matters of living in a zombie infested post-apocalyptic era. Wisteria is a strong minded teenage girl that has seen the worst of what humanity can offer. She believes in always being ready and never being a victim. For me, both qualities are huge pluses to have in a female lead; it just makes you love her and root for her even when she is being idiotic. This, coupled with her flaws, makes Wisteria a more believable and interesting character. On the other hand we have Bach, a conflicted, angsty, moody, and most times a downright jackass alien boy whom you’ll probably develop a love-hate relationship with his decisions. Throughout the tale he battles with his personal demons and his desire to possess and love Wisteria. As I was reading the book, half the time I was waiting for the plot to finally get them together, and the other half I just wanted to smack Bach hard enough to shake him.

I ask to review this book from the Innovative Online Book Tours’ tour catalogue and I can’t be happier that I did. I really enjoyed this story, and I’m looking forward to see how the series, as well as the author, grow and develop. If you enjoy reading YA books within the Paranormal genre or you just like your books with a good pace but very little to no smexiness, then you might want to give Wisteria a try.

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