Poisoned Iris (The Red Era, #1) by Cindy Mezni

Athens was once the cradle of civilization. Now, it's slowly but surely becoming the tomb of humanity. 

The Red Plague, a violent virus which had run rampant decades ago, left its imprint on the planet and the flesh of men. All that remains of the modern world is an endless wasteland of ruins - Erebos- and two cities- Elysion, the obscure island of the Non-Infecteds about which no one knows a thing, and, Tartaros, the crumbling town of the Infecteds, where despair, hatred, violence and poverty are the operative words. 

And at the heart of this universe lived Irisya, a sixteen-year-old Non-Infected girl, staying recluse in her home to be safe and relying on her brother, Memphis, for everything. 

But then, one day, he disappears without a trace.

Irisya has no choice. To save him, to survive, she will have to brave all the dangers of the outside world. 

Author Links:

Cindy Mezni, author of The Last Hope series, Poisoned Iris trilogy and Nëphyr trilogy

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Review:

I got into this book really quickly. From the first page, the author sucks you into Irisya's dystopian world, and with each chapter, she builds a more complete picture of the chaos and terror that ensued after a plagued engulfed what was modern-day Greece. The Non-Infected fled Athens, gong across the sea to the island of Erobos, leaving the Infected to rule the island. Any Non-Infecteds left in Tartaros are in danger of all kinds, from being killed or sold, or taken from their homes and families to Erebos, of which they know nothing about. 

So, for years, Irisya has stayed inside the apartment she shares with her brother, Memphis, who impersonates an Infected daily, to be able to go out and provide for him and his sister (through means that he does not usually share with Irisya, but at times, she is able to guess).

Irisya's world is turned upside down when her brother disappears one day and does not return home. When she goes outside the apartment to look for him, she is spotted and identified as a Non-Infected almost immediately and must flee the area and the home that she has not left since she was a child, ad word of a Non-Infected in the area spreads rapidly, and Infecteds begin to hunt for her. 

Outside, in a word she had only heard horror stories about, with little knowledge of how to survive, Irisya begins her search for her brother, luckily running into help along the way. 

This book was AWESOME! Throughout the whole book, there are twists and surprises, and Irisya is put into all kinds of crazy situations in her journey to find her brother. 

I will note that the book was a bit long, but I don't think it was too long. I loved the amount of detail the author put into explaining why things are the way they are in the book. 

If you read any of my other book reviews, this may come as a surprise, but I even liked the way the romantic aspects were done in this book. My pet peeve is taking what would otherwise be a perfectly good book and throwing in the clichè love triangle and taking the focus away from the story, or creating a super strong female main character, who turns into a complete idiot over some stupid crush. In this book, the author was excellent at tying the love story in without taking anything away from the story or Irisya's character. 

I've also got to say that the author did an amazing job with the ending! Although I'm super anxious and excited to read the next book and see what happens next, it didn't leave off at a super crazy cliff hanger where you have to check and make sure it is actually the end of the book, and it's not missing the last chapter or something (yes, I've done this, more than I care to mention). The ending definitely left me with plenty of questions, but it essentially close up a big chapter of Irisya's story, leaving questions about how the next chapter will go. 

I ♥ ♥ ♥-ed this book! It took me a little longer than usual to read, but only because the book was a bit longer than I expected. However, that definitely wasn't a bad thing! I was happy to spend that time with Irisya and "her people." (Side note: I loved that she started saying this toward the end of the book.)

I will be waiting (not so patiently) for the next book in The Red Era series to be released so that I can find out what happens next with Irisya and "her people!"

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.