Limetown, A Novel

The Prequel to the #1 Podcast

Happy Thursday, Belles & Beaux!

For the last two days, I have been deep into the world of Limetown. Yes, that’s right. The podcast that left those of us who listened hanging for two years has come back to life with new episodes…. And a prequel novel. Yes, you read that right. A prequel novel. Am I mad? No, not at all. The only thing I’m mad about is that they made us wait until November 13!

Warning: Spoilers follow after this line so please do not continue if you haven’t at least listened to season one of the podcast. If you proceed, then that’s on you and I’m not the person who sucks for ruining things for you because you’ve been warned by a major run on sentence. Apologies to all my English teachers and friends who are English teachers!

I will fully disclose that I went straight to Barnes & Noble near my apartment, picked up myself a copy, and then came directly home where I proceeded to cook myself a small dinner and pile up in my recliner to begin devouring this novel – which I finished last night in bed before writing this post. Thus this picture of me selfie-ing in the parking lot at the said Barnes & Noble in 34 degree weather. Yeah. I’m that kind of book nerd.

Now, if you haven’t listened to the podcast, I suggest at least listening to season one before you start in on this novel or you are going to be completely lost. This story takes place from Emile and his brother/Lia’s Dad being in high school. We also learn that Lia’s dad’s name is Jacob. We also find out that Max and Oscar have actually known Emile for much longer than we believed by listening to the podcast.

In this novel, we learn so much information. That Lia’s mother has a secret. That Lia doesn’t remember a lot of things about Emile because my theory – that I will be sharing at a later date when I recap the newest episodes of the podcast – was actually legit in the book! I love being able to apply my X-Men knowledge (RIP Stan Lee) to something other than X-Men.

Fair warning, the novel does skip between graduating high school Lia and Emile as you read. To me, this wasn’t hard to follow after having read the Divergent Trilogy due to the later books switching between Tris & Four’s point of views. I went into reading this book blindly. I read no other reviews until after I finished it. A lot that I read that gave it less than five stars were because it felt choppy. But that’s what the story of Limetown is: choppy and in pieces. Because we don’t get answers immediately.

And sure this novel sheds a lot of light on why Limetown was created as well as Emile’s reason to be estranged from his family! But we still don’t understand why this organization wants the tech or to understand how Emile’s talent works. We just learn why Limetown was created and why Lia is the one that is supposed to tell the story of Limetown and its people. This novel just deepens the mystery and has hooked me more to the podcast. If I wasn’t already waiting with bated breath for the new episodes, then I definitely am now.

This has been the first book I’ve devoured this quickly since… Well since I read all three Hunger Games books two weeks before the first movie came out and reading Gone with the Wind in two and a half days during my sophomore year of high school. I also haven’t looked this forward to a book since the Harry Potter series. So yeah, I really enjoyed this novel.