Project ELE

Project ELE

Rebecca Gober & Courtney Nuckels

3.5/5.0

A virus is wiping out man-kind. Millions are dead. Thousands more are dying. The government creates a program called Project ELE as a last ditch effort to save the human race. All remaining survivors who have not yet been infected are forced into F.E.M.A. shelters to wait it out.


Willow Mosby is a 15 year old girl. Life as she knows it ends when she walks into the shelter doors. She must adapt to the demands of shelter life, work a full time job, and make new friends.

After making a discovery, Willow and her new found friends begin exhibiting strange abilities. They embark on a mission to find out what is happening to them.

Will Willow survive?

Ok. So the first few chapters of the book had me sobbing. Seriously sobbing.

It was beautifully written and heartwrenching. I could literally feel the anguish that Willow was facing.

Once they got into the F.E.M.A. shelter I got kind of bored. I went with it though, because, ya know, world building.

Then she starts meeting her new friends, and I was like "Ok, cool, now we can do something cool"

Then nothing really happened.

Then they went on an adventure, and I was all, "OK! NOW THINGS WILL GET INTERESTING"

Then shit happened, but it wasn't like "OMG!!!" crazy shit, it was just shit.

Then they went on more adventures.

Then she starts to fall in love, which is cool I guess. However, it felt more like high school love than a real romance.

I can almost hear them arguing over who loves who more.  

Then they start getting weird abilities, and I'm like "OK, we're going to really go somewhere with this, right?!"

Instead it's all like "Whoo! Look what I can do, lets not tell anyone!"

Then we spend several chapters hanging out with friends and comparing notes on Willow's eyes.

... Are you getting the idea?

It's basically this until like the last 4-5 chapters of the book, then things pick up again.

And then you get to the end, and its like:

In short, it had a really strong beginning, and a really strong ending. The middle was just blah to me though. HOWEVER, TO BE FAIR, I think someone who is like 12-15 might enjoy reading this. I think it's just to young for me. There was way to much time spent building the friendships and going on pointless adventures for me to feel really connected. I didn't want to murder any of the charecters with a spork though, so thats a plus.

Additionally, where the book leaves off leaves a very interesting scenario for the next book. Perhaps it will be more fast-paced, edge of your seat than this one is now that all the relationships are established.

BECAUSE I FEEL that it is really a story for younger readers (and at almost 30 I'm definately not a younger reader) I gave it a 3.5, because I feel like someone in the right age group could connect better with the characters and what they are going through. I feel like the friendships that are built might seem more meaningful to them. The adventures that they are going on more exciting. The love interest scenarios more OMG! Blah, blah, blah.

So, if you're into that, by all means, please read it. If you know someone who is a younger reader I wouldn't hesitate to recommend they try it.

I really don't feel like it's a BAD BOOK, I just feel like it's a bad book for ME.