Riders by Veronica Rossi

Amy     
Lynnie 

fantasy, young adult, action

In Riders, four young men have woken up from serious accidents to realize they have special powers and are now the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--War, Famine, Death, and Conquest.  The story is told by War (Gideon Blake) as he is strapped in an interrogation chair.  His story begins with his accident and covers his period of discovery about his new situation and his journey to locate the other three horsemen so that they can save the world from the evil Kindred.

Amy's Review

I’m happy to report that Veronica Rossi’s new series, Riders, looks as promising as her first series, Under the Never Sky. I will not say that I liked Riders better than Under the Never Sky (to which I awarded 5 stars), but I did feel that Riders was another compelling story full of engaging characters and action. This was entirely different and not at all what I expected. This is one of those storylines you cannot describe to friends without sounding ridiculous. It sounds silly or unrealistic or ambitious. However, the way Rossi weaves the tale, it is entirely believable. The main character, Gideon, sucked me in from the first page and kept me wanting to turn each page. The story is creative and engrossing. The section which describes the journey to Norway, however, was slow and boring. I don’t feel it brought the story forward in any way except geographically. It was a buzz kill. Otherwise, I was fully engaged. Rossi left the book in a good place for the sequel. I can’t wait to read what comes next for Gideon and the gang!

Lynnie's Review

There are a lot of things to like about Riders, but a lot of things that also got on my nerves. While many of the characters were interesting, others were really flat (Daryn, I'm looking at you) & I found myself annoyed that we didn't get back to the more interesting characters more quickly. As annoyed as I was by the character Daryn, I was equally bothered by the forced, and in my opinion unnecessary, "relationship" between her & our narrator Gideon. I think I would've liked her better if the story didn't try to constantly force them together. Not all YA books need a romance.

Also, the writing style is supposed to be the "voice" of Gideon, so. Apparently Gideon can't put together too many coherent thoughts in a row, so. Sentences end mid-thought and then start again. It's a writing device that just got on my very last nerve and had me wondering if the comma key on Rossi's computer was broken. When the book got slow (it's told through flashbacks), the odd writing style was particularly jarring to me.

That said, I really enjoyed the story. The idea of living personifications of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was fascinating, as was their mission. There was plenty of well-written action, characters to hate, and characters to cheer for. My understanding is that this is another series- the ending leaves plenty of room for the story to continue, but doesn't leave you in a cliffhanger either and I appreciated not feeling like the book ended just as things were getting interesting.