Ailene de Annabel den Dekker

Salut mes p’tits chats!!!

J’espère que vous allez bien! Je vous retrouve aujourd’hui avec la chronique d’Ailene, le premier roman en autoédition de Annabel den Dekker que j’ai eu la chance d’avoir en ARC grâce à Booksirens. Résumé :

Hayden Navarro has only one concern: protecting the ones he loves.

At nineteen, he learns the world is in danger. An anonymous terrorist organization has attacked several countries all across the planet. When his parents suspect there might be a mole in the Council of Ailene, they ask Hayden to go undercover as an intern.

Once in Ailene, he quickly becomes overwhelmed by everything and everyone around him. He struggles to keep his best friend, Lowell, safe while fending off the ever-present voices inside his head telling him that one day he’s going to lose everything, and he’ll be the one responsible for it all.

He’s close to falling apart altogether when he crosses paths with Alexander Collins, a funny and handsome Council member who makes him feel happy and understood. His days suddenly become a little bit brighter—but nothing in Hayden’s life is ever easy. There’s a strict rule against workplace romances, forcing them to stay just friends, yet as they grow closer, Hayden and Lowell find themselves steadily growing apart.

Can Hayden find a way to keep his head above water while hunting down the mole, struggling with his growing feelings for Alexander, fixing his relationship with Lowell, and trying to save everyone he cares about—all at the same time?

FR- Alors alors… alors ce roman était vendu comme une dystopie Young Adult et c’est exactement ce que c’est. J’adore les dystopies. C’est un genre que j’ai beaucoup lu à l’époque où je lisais du MF et c’est hélàs trop rare en MM. J’aime les univers dystopiques, j’aime les codes de ce genre de roman ainsi que les thèmes abordés. Et on peut dire clairement que l’auteure à réussit son paris. On est clairement dans une dystopie mais avec un couple gay.

J’ai d’ailleurs aimé que ça ne soit pas vraiment un sujet et qu’on ne reste pas vraiment bloqué sur le fait que le personnage principal tombe amoureux d’un autre garçon. D’ailleurs, contrairement à pas mal de roman MM il y a une romance MF qui est très mignonne et les personnages féminins ne sont pas stéréotypés.

Pour autant, est ce que ce roman m’a plus.. moyennement. J’ai passé un très bon moment de lecture, les personnages sont attachants et les thèmes comme je le disais plus haut fidèles aux thèmes du genre mais… Tout va trop vite. On sent que c’est le premier roman de l’auteure et le fait que le roman ne soit qu’en un tome là où en général une dystopie est sur 3 tomes n’aide pas les choses.
Ca va vite, on a pas vraiment le temps de découvrir l’univers proposé par l’auteure. Les personnages principaux sont bien développés mais parfois on fait un bon en avant sans trop savoir pourquoi.

Quelques thèmes sont clairement too much. Ok on est dans un roman Young Adult mais l’amour qui triomphe de tout? L’amour au sens large en plus, c’était clairement pas crédible.

Cependant, l’univers est sympa, le rythme de l’histoire aussi malgré quelques petits loupés. Mais au moins l’auteure à le mérite de nous servir une dystopie MM qui se tient relativement bien.

ENG- So well well well… well this novel was marketed as a Young Adult dystopia and that’s exactly what it is. I love dystopias. It’s a genre that I read a lot when I was reading MF and it’s unfortunately too rare in MM. I like dystopian universes, I like the codes of this kind of novel as well as the themes addressed. And we can clearly say that the author has succeeded in her bet. We are clearly in a dystopia but with a gay couple.

I also liked that it wasn’t really a subject and that we didn’t really get stuck on the fact that the main character fell in love with another boy. Besides, unlike a lot of MM novels there is an MF romance which is very cute and the female characters are not stereotyped.

However, does this novel appeal to me more.. moderately. I had a great time reading, the characters are endearing and the themes, as I said above, faithful to the themes of the genre but… Everything is going too fast. We feel that this is the author’s first novel and the fact that the novel is only in one volume where in general a dystopia is in 3 volumes does not help matters.
It’s going fast, we don’t really have time to discover the universe proposed by the author. The main characters are well developed but sometimes we take a leap forward without really knowing why.

Some themes are clearly too much. Ok we are in a Young Adult novel but the love that triumphs over all? Love in the broadest sense, too, was clearly not believable.

However, the universe is nice, the rhythm of the story too despite some small misses. But at least the author has the merit of serving us an MM dystopia that stands up relatively well.

Ma Note Globale :