Pixie Dust Book Reviews: [Blog Tour & Giveaway] The Exemeus (The Exemeus #1) by Folami Morris & Abeni Morris

In the novel Exemeus, you find yourself face-to-face with a future that perhaps doesn't sound all that pleasant. But it is the only world Dephon knows, so why would he want anything different? Suddenly he finds himself reading a book given to him by one of his father's friends because it very well might be a life-or-death situation. What will the future hold for Dephon as he takes a look into the past?

REVIEW

Title: The Exemeus

Author: Folami Morris and Abeni Morris

Publish Date: January 3, 2013

Publisher: Royal Colours Ink

Pages: 337

Other Books in the Series: TBA

Buy the Book: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Kobo

Rating: ★★★★

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.

The whole idea of this novel is extremely interesting to me. It's a very complex sort of setup with the tyrannical government, the horrific high school kids, and the magical powers that are bound to show up. Typically, I get to handle at least one of those problems at a time when tackling a novel for a review. So, of course the whole premise of the story caught me by surprise. I honestly couldn't wait to read it.

The Exemeus by Folami and Abeni Morris is the tale of two different people bound by the same fate. Thirteen years (and death) separate these characters and yet somewhere along the lines, the gap is bridged by a single document, the Exemeus. Hyalee Smith has been dead for a long time, leaving many to mourn the destruction and loss that she left behind. Dephon is just trying to survive through high school as people bully him constantly and his father does nothing more than sit in front of the television. It's hard to imagine those two ever having their fates entwined, right? He's a nobody and when Hyalee was alive, she most certainly was a somebody. But as the date of the appearance of his powers draws near, he must look into the past through Hyalee's eyes and understand what happened so many years before. Throughout this process, he learns more about not only himself but his parents as well -- the mother he never knew and the father who never left the couch. His only hope for a future is in the past.

I've already talked about the whole idea of the story previously so I think I'll talk about the way the story flowed together. It seems hard to have two separate stories going on at once in a story. Two separate and completely different characters to create and deal with while working out how the story should be in the end. Yeah, that just sounds like a whole lot of work. That is what is great about this story. The two separate, albeit entwined, stories seem to flow together seamlessly and the authors managed to make it appear easier than it probably was.

Dephon, who I am going to claim as the main character for the simple fact that he is the living one out of the two, comes off as weak and perhaps a little on the uncool side in the very beginning. He is used to having the jocks torment him for no reason or people just outright ignoring him. It seems like he is always late. He just can never catch a break. Struggling to keep his head above water as he suffers through high school, he can't even find solace in his own home because he performs the role of caregiver. I feel bad saying this but doesn't his life sound pitiful? The greatest quality I think he has during the beginning is the fact that he doesn't outright complain. He acts as though he is okay with being the punch line of every one of the jock's jokes and that he doesn't have any friends. Everything changes for him in a split second when he finds himself in possession of his mother's Exemeus. For all of his issues, you would think that there was nothing special about him but the truth is that he is very special indeed. I find myself liking the fact that he doesn't think that he is some great and powerful guy but somewhere underneath it all he knows he is different.

Hyalee survives in this story through The Exemeus, her every thought and word pressed into the pages of this book that fell in Dephon's hands. She was always moving it seemed like and she never stood out in any of the new places she went. Of course, it's hard to stand out when you only live in one place for a short amount of time but finally she makes a friend at her new high school. Then a new guy shows up, who seems to like her, and the air around seems to grow hotter when they are together. After several failed attempts to walk and drive her home one night after detention, she finds out just how different they really are. I loved her personality, it was very relatable and endearing. Some of her antics were funny and some of them were heartbreaking. She was a well developed character, who showed a great deal of strength in all the areas that it counts.

I think I kind of feel bad for his father once everything goes down and you learn more about his story. He's a headstrong type of guy who refuses to change his mind no matter what. Even when he knows that it might be dangerous. His character grew on me once the story really got going and I understood why he is the way he is. He once was a happy, go-lucky type of guy but there are moments in his life that drastically changed him and not for the better sadly. Jacqueline is the voice of reason during the story, she seems to have it all figured out and shares her little nuggets of wisdom with those she thinks need it most. You know what I mean. Anyway, I actually really liked her character from the moment she was introduced.

WELL! That's all folks. Go check it out and see whether this book is for you!