The Earth Dwellers by David Estes

Goodreads
458 pages, YA Dystopian
The Dwellers Saga #4; The Country Saga #4
My Rating: 5 stars

Fun Fact: There are a whole bunch of extras at the end of the book, including a short story from Year Zero.

Synopsis

The Earth Dwellers is the 4th book in BOTH The Dwellers Saga and The Country Saga. The author recommends that BOTH series are read in their entirety before reading this book (The Moon Dwellers, The Star Dwellers, The Sun Dwellers, Fire Country, Ice Country, Water & Storm Country).

Your favorite Dwellers and Country Saga characters come together in this epic seventh book! 

As President Borg Lecter threatens to annihilate the Country tribes in order to expand his glass-domed empire, Adele ventures into the belly of the beast. Her only hope of survival is the consolidation of Dwellers and Country power before it’s too late. 

Former demagogue President Nailin is eliminated, yet civil unrest infects every alliance. To save Adele, President Tristan faces his greatest challenge yet: unifying unfriendly Dwellers in the Tri-Realms to raise an army against Lecter. Meanwhile, Dazz must convince the Ice Country leaders to march with Siena and the Tri-Tribes on the gates of the Glass City.

The world sits on the edge of a knife. Will Adele, Tristan, Dazz, and Siena defeat Lecter and his army of killers before the Glassies wipe them off the face of the Earth?

My 2 cents

This is definitely one of the best books I've read so far this year. Its beyond amazing, and I'm not sure how to really write a review for it without giving too much away! Be forewarned, if you haven't read the other books in the series, there may be spoilers!

Here we go! Tristan and Adele come up to the surface to find out more about the Earth Dwellers. Siena, Skye and Wilde find them and assume they are their "Glassies" enemies. Skye insists on taking Adele and Tristan prisoners. Along the way, they form a truce and agree to help each other defeat President Lector and the Earth Dwellers once and for all. Meanwhile, Dazz and Buff have made it back to Ice Country, and the goal is to convince the council to join in an alliance with the Tri-Tribes. 

I'm not giving away too much here, this all happens pretty early in the story, and is what we would expect. So the theme of a controlling dictator continues in this story. It seemed amazing to me that Tristan and Adele have come so far, to have to start all over again. 

The familiar themes of family and friendship are carried on throughout this novel, and seem present in just about every page. EVERYONE is fighting for those they love. And it makes the characters have to face some hard decisions. 

The FEELS in this one--Oh. My. Gosh. I had goosebumps before I even started reading, in just epicness of all my favorite characters coming together to rid the planet of evil: Adele, Tristan, Skye, Siena, Circ, Dazz, Buff, Roc, Tawni, Feve, Lara, Hawk, Sadie, Huck, and even Perry! There is several POVs, but the main ones are Adele, Tristan, and Siena. There were horrible moments of tears and thinking, "WHY???" There were also moments of giggling--especially with Roc, I can never get enough of him! 

After the first couple of chapters, nothing in the story was what I was expecting. There are so many twists. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, I was thrown for another loop. I LOVE that! I love not being to guess the ending, and I certainly didn't in this book. Up until the very end, I was completely surprised!

Somehow the author took two very different series with a huge cast of unique characters and weaved one of the best dystopian stories I've had the pleasure of reading! The ending was bittersweet for me. I really didn't want to have to say goodbye to this world and its peoples. But I can console myself with the knowledge that Estes has more adventures coming over the horizon soon!