This is one of those books that I saw cropping up a lot on my social media feeds prior to its release. It's also one of those books that have been graced with a tantalising, beautiful cover. Had I not come across it at the bookstore, mind, I'm not sure I would have been in a rush to get my hands on it. With Beth Revis's Across the Universe trilogy having come to an end last year, I felt as though I have a spot for YA interplanetary sci-fi in my reading sphere. Then I did come across the book at the store, and I found myself prompted to buy it. 
 The start of the story made my think of the sinking of the Titanic: the panic, the claustrophobic feel of the metal prison they're stuck in, the fact that they're off course, even the way the Icarus fell to its grave on the planet. Once the authors get to the catastrophe that is the "sinking" of the spaceship, it was obvious they had a killer on their hands. They were able to ramp up the tension of the escape and I found myself caught up in the sequence of events. 
 When the escape pod crashes onto the planet, though, I started to have some misgivings. Mostly I didn't feel as though the setting was explored as well as it could have been. There are some hints that allowed me to build a vague picture of events that didn't feel fully fleshed out due to the world building that was shaky at best. There was very little attention given to the wider, more general, details of the society that has formed these teens, with the story focusing almost exclusively on the setting at hand - that of the abandoned planet. Even this, though, is only used as part of a series of plot devices. Case in point: Lilac wants to part ways with Tarver, ends up getting chased up a tree by a large cat-like creature, Tarver saves the day, Lilac realises she owes her life to him. When does this species of cat (or any other predator) make a reappearance? It doesn't. Why is it on the planet? Who knows. They make a few remarks about tame cat-like creatures that are introduced to new planets upon their discovery... however, this particular cat has certainly not been affected by natural evolution as, when things come together, the planet must have been discovered within the last few decades, leaving natural evolution no time to leave its mark. So why are domesticated cats introduced to other planets, but a feral and dangerous species was introduced here? We'll never know. 
 Tarver's character appealed to me more than Lilac's. He's level-headed, determined to survive, and doing his best to make sure that Lilac survives along with him. I found Lilac's character harder to connect with, foremost because she's kind of schizo. Her thought flow is sometimes (but not always) at odds with the person she presents herself as and eventually I got tired of this. By the end of the book she's undergone a lot more character development than Tarver and the showdown between her and her father was one of my favourite scenes of the book. 
 The secrets that the planet is hiding turned out to be a really interesting twist that grabbed my attention again after a lull midway through the story. When I learnt that the second book would be about a different set of characters, I have to admit that I was disappointed as I felt that this story's revelations deserved more exploration. Oh well.