Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner - OPTIONAL

Unearthed (Unearthed, #1) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, 328 pages.  Hyperion, 2018.  $18.  

Content: Language: R (90 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Earth is in a dystopian condition, with resources running out, so when word of a planet named Gaia with a race of aliens called the Undying is presented there is rush to uncover their secrets.  Mia is a scaver, which means she is transported to the planet in the hopes of scavenging treasure that she can sell to buy back her sister who is enslaved.  Jules is a scholar’s son who is on Gaia to find the Undying’s resources because his father has been disgraced on earth.  From the beginning, Jules and Mia have to help each other just to survive on the oxygen deprived planet and to escape the other humans who are in a race to find the same things and aren’t afraid to kill for them.  

Mia and Jules are great characters and I enjoyed their backstory, romantic chemistry and determination.  I liked the premise of the story, but I was annoyed with the amount of details explaining the problem and wish that there would have been more action.  The beginning and end of the book kept my interest, but the middle was a bit of a slog.  There is also going to be a second book because this is just the first part of the story.  

C. Peterson