Seeing Night Reviews: {Blog Tour} Review + Giveaway of The Exemeus by Folami Morris and Abeni Morris

Welcome to my stop on The Exemeus blog tour by Folami Morris and Abeni Morris hosted by YA Bound. Click HERE to see the rest of the blog tour schedule!

The Exemeus by Folami Morris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

GENRE: YA Fantasy
THEME: Dystopian, Magic, Dual Worlds
RECEIVED: Blog Tour
AUTHORS BLOG: The Exemeus

BLURB:

Hyalee Smith is dead, she just doesn’t know it yet.

Her short life was devoted to love and to hate. Love of the man who stole her heart, hate for the man who stole the world. Murdered by the government she swore to destroy, she has been given another chance to make it right. But to save the planet, she needs the help of the most powerful mystic the world has ever seen—unfortunately he hasn’t been born yet.

In a world where fear is the only currency, Dephon has committed the ultimate crime: inspiring hope.

His only goal is to make it safely through ninth grade, but on a post-apocalyptic Earth run by the Treptonian government, it isn’t that simple. Heir to a legendary power, Dephon Johnson is the only threat to the government’s rule. And on Trepton, all threats must be eliminated. When hundreds of assassins are dispatched to neutralize him, Dephon is forced to fight back. His only chance of survival is to enlist the aid of the greatest warrior the world has ever known. The only problem is, she's been dead for 13 years.

REVIEW:
It seems that a boy as the lead character is starting to bloom in the Young Adult genre. The Exemeus is a complex storyline that has twist in a wonderfully thought out plot of betrayal, family, love, secrets and lots of magic.

The Exemeus follows Dephon who discovers he’s meant for much more than just being a normal teenage boy. He is given a book (called Exemeus) that belonged to his mother and finds out the importance of his family and the destiny he is meant for. The government is a major threat to him and the only person that can help him is someone who died many years ago. Dephon must learn from this person to be able to survive what’s coming.

Dephon is a young character who has a lot to learn and may seem like a weak little kid who just wants to get through high school. I loved watching his character grow, after being given his mothers book after overhearing a conversation between his father and a mysterious woman, he starts to put the pieces together of what his father is keeping from him. He learns about Haylee through his mother’s book and discovers through her story more about himself. I didn’t connect to him as much as I did Haylee, mostly because he was such a young protagonist, and the beginning took a bit to hook me into the story. I’m curious as to what he will do next after the ending shocked me beyond belief; his character has many more challenges ahead that’s for sure.

Haylee I felt was the voice and strength of this story. The readers see Haylee through Dephon reading about her and what ultimately become of her. I loved connecting bits and pieces with Haylee’s life 13 years in the past to Dephons world and how changed because of what happened to her. There is some romance in this story; I loved watching the romance grow between Haylee and Singelton and how their relationship is connected to Dephon. My favorite scenes were whenever these two were together; they have a lot of challenges ahead, as well as heartache and betrayal.

Dephon’s father is a highly important character, which the reader will discover the twist of this of course once they read it. I felt his change from reading about his past to how he is now was sad to see such a difference and how it could be the same man. I felt bad for him after learning the heartache that happens to his family that greatly impacts the plot twist. He was so lively and happy before and it made me wants him to find some sort of happiness and just be there for his son instead of watching television all the time.

Overall there is just so much that happens throughout this story that even the slightest mention of things could give away too much. I loved the world development and how the past of one character leads to the world that the other character now lives in. I thought going back and forth to each character and their storyline would confuse me, but I was able to keep up and understand the reasoning and how everything made sense in the end.

My only issue was just how long this book was and how much the reader has to take in, which could get overwhelming for some. The character development was amazing and I can’t wait to see where the authors will take Dephon’s character. In the end even though I caught on to a lot of connections before they were revealed the ending was perfect, it shocked me and still has me reeling with questions.

RECOMMENDATION:
This is a Young Adult novel with that has a wonderfully crafted world of magic and mystery. Fans of Partials by Dan Wells and Divergent by Veronica Roth will enjoy this fantasy dystopian world in The Exemeus by Folami Morris and Abeni Morris.