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The Outliers #2
Legacy
A rebellious teenage outcast is their only hope...
She's wild and outspoken. Trouble follows Carla Mainston wherever she goes. But what do you expect from a purple outcast living in a green colony?
When a deadly disease spreads through the colony, and Carla's brother Joe becomes infected, she knows she has to find a cure before it's too late. But when her genetics kick in, and she begins inheriting mysterious superpowers, her life becomes a whole new level of crazy.
If she can just get a handle on her new powers, which so far only seem to make her gooey over boys, maybe she can become a superhero and save everyone, assuming she doesn’t get arrested or have the life sucked out of her before then…
She's wild and outspoken. Trouble follows Carla Mainston wherever she goes. But what do you expect from a purple outcast living in a green colony?
When a deadly disease spreads through the colony, and Carla's brother Joe becomes infected, she knows she has to find a cure before it's too late. But when her genetics kick in, and she begins inheriting mysterious superpowers, her life becomes a whole new level of crazy.
If she can just get a handle on her new powers, which so far only seem to make her gooey over boys, maybe she can become a superhero and save everyone, assuming she doesn’t get arrested or have the life sucked out of her before then…
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 30, 2010
10 people are currently reading
1184 people want to read
About the author
Claire Chilton
24 books126 followersAfter completing her honors degree in English Literature, Claire Chilton was interviewed to work for MI5. Fortunately, for the sake of the United Kingdom, she did not get the job. Now a web designer and graphic designer with a passion for great stories, she writes about the adventures she'd like to have.
A prolific writer with wide-ranging interests, Claire specializes in romantic and speculative fiction, which includes genres such as mystery, science fiction, fantasy, horror, comedy and romance. Her mystery romance novel, Hustle, won Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write contest in 2013, and her previous books in The Demon Diaries won the Most Read award on Wattpad.
After exploring the world in her misspent youth, traveling across Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean, she now lives in an ancient Roman city in Yorkshire with a fluffy kitten called Shadow, who is convinced she is a bigger cat than she is.
You can find Claire online at claire-chilton.com.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 17, 2011
I just finished what became of the squishies and I have to say, I really loved this book. It’s not because it was well-written although that helps but because it’s nice to read something different.
It is a very clever concept with characters that you grow to love through the book. There is humour, adventure and justice at the end.
It is clearly written for a younger audience as the heroine goes to school but it is suitable for anyone who enjoys a really good sci-fi/fantasy story.
Look beyond the already good story and you’ll find a social satire and comedy that makes this story a GREAT book.
The story is set in the colony populated by green people. Unfortunately the star of this novel is purple and she doesn’t feel like she fits in. There are questions that pop up early in the story, why is she purple? Who is the lurker in the bushes? What is so special about Carla? She’s disruptive and a right pain in the behind to the people who care about her but Carla’s destiny is to change her world.
After reading it though, I still don’t know what became of the squishies, should I be worried?
I can’t recommend this YA novel enough.
It is a very clever concept with characters that you grow to love through the book. There is humour, adventure and justice at the end.
It is clearly written for a younger audience as the heroine goes to school but it is suitable for anyone who enjoys a really good sci-fi/fantasy story.
Look beyond the already good story and you’ll find a social satire and comedy that makes this story a GREAT book.
The story is set in the colony populated by green people. Unfortunately the star of this novel is purple and she doesn’t feel like she fits in. There are questions that pop up early in the story, why is she purple? Who is the lurker in the bushes? What is so special about Carla? She’s disruptive and a right pain in the behind to the people who care about her but Carla’s destiny is to change her world.
After reading it though, I still don’t know what became of the squishies, should I be worried?
I can’t recommend this YA novel enough.
March 17, 2012
Great fun read. This is the book that's getting my eleven year old reading and enjoying it. She has now developed an obsession with purple aliens and cleaning products.
November 13, 2014
Whatever became of the squishies? I have no idea either it was never mentioned in this book or it was mentioned so poorly I didn’t notice.
I don’t mean to be harsh I really don’t, I understand that it takes a lot of effort and creativity to wright a book, and I thank this author for coming up with what is an interesting idea for a novel. However I did not like this book at all. I couldn’t find anything to connect to or anything I found interesting.
Characters, there were too many of them and none of them really got their own focus or enough time invested in them for me to make a connection to any of them.
Setting, while creative I like the idea of blue, green, orange, purple, colored people and exploring the idea of culture so segregated by each colony, I kept getting side tracked but the lack of logic in this world. The green skinned people love cleanliness, so much so that there gods are cleaning products, but then why is cleaning a punishment wouldn’t the people who clean things be revered as a place of high society? This was just one example of things that would jar me out of the story, and don’t even get me started on the “blooming” ritual of the purple skinned people, how could anyone reproduce if the males kill the females before they have kids?
Conflict, was confusing with too many story elements and things thrown in.
Plot also was everywhere with multiple plots being drug out during the first part of the book and all of the plots being slammed into each other towards the end, leaving me not feeling satisfied at any of the plot lines conclusions.
I say a lot that I’m not one for science fiction because if the world isn’t built right I just can’t suspend my disbelief and end up just yelling “come on” at the book, and maybe that was my mistake to read something that I normally don’t. But I was very disappointed in this book, I saw all the high reviews and thought that this was going to be an interested story about a plucky girl and her adventures, it was not.
I don’t mean to be harsh I really don’t, I understand that it takes a lot of effort and creativity to wright a book, and I thank this author for coming up with what is an interesting idea for a novel. However I did not like this book at all. I couldn’t find anything to connect to or anything I found interesting.
Characters, there were too many of them and none of them really got their own focus or enough time invested in them for me to make a connection to any of them.
Setting, while creative I like the idea of blue, green, orange, purple, colored people and exploring the idea of culture so segregated by each colony, I kept getting side tracked but the lack of logic in this world. The green skinned people love cleanliness, so much so that there gods are cleaning products, but then why is cleaning a punishment wouldn’t the people who clean things be revered as a place of high society? This was just one example of things that would jar me out of the story, and don’t even get me started on the “blooming” ritual of the purple skinned people, how could anyone reproduce if the males kill the females before they have kids?
Conflict, was confusing with too many story elements and things thrown in.
Plot also was everywhere with multiple plots being drug out during the first part of the book and all of the plots being slammed into each other towards the end, leaving me not feeling satisfied at any of the plot lines conclusions.
I say a lot that I’m not one for science fiction because if the world isn’t built right I just can’t suspend my disbelief and end up just yelling “come on” at the book, and maybe that was my mistake to read something that I normally don’t. But I was very disappointed in this book, I saw all the high reviews and thought that this was going to be an interested story about a plucky girl and her adventures, it was not.
June 17, 2012
I liked this book. I really did. It had a lot of silliness and interesting things to say. I think I would have liked it more if I was a teenager but you know, that's not the author's fault at all. I had two problems with this book: there were typos and words errors, and quite a few of them. But it was also all written very briskly. Things would move really fast and then things would move really slow. Information would be thrown a little suddenly, or not quite at the right time, or there'd simply be too much information all at once. I guess it was just a little jerky in it's flow.
However, that I continued reading is testament to the fascination of the characters and the world. At first one thinks the whole thing is a joke, but then you realize the author is pretty serious and does, in fact, know what's going on in her own world. I just wish it hadn't taken 75% of the book for that to become clear.
Anyway. Yes, it's worth your time to read. Yes, it's darn good for your Young adult reader. Yes, it's fun. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed my read through. That's why it got four stars from me. But there just wasn't enough mind blown happening to get the five stars.
However, that I continued reading is testament to the fascination of the characters and the world. At first one thinks the whole thing is a joke, but then you realize the author is pretty serious and does, in fact, know what's going on in her own world. I just wish it hadn't taken 75% of the book for that to become clear.
Anyway. Yes, it's worth your time to read. Yes, it's darn good for your Young adult reader. Yes, it's fun. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed my read through. That's why it got four stars from me. But there just wasn't enough mind blown happening to get the five stars.
April 1, 2013
This was a really good book from start to finish, and had some great unexpected plot twists. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys teen fantasy books, but also anyone who likes a bit of rebellion in their heroes. Vibrantly, colorful reading!
July 28, 2011
i love the premise - the only purple girl in a land of green people - where the only work is cleaning and soap products. I would highly recommend this tale to any one!
August 31, 2011
A great book, I loved it!
Not for those who are as serious as cereal, and a must read for everyone else.
Not for those who are as serious as cereal, and a must read for everyone else.
July 20, 2021
Legacy by Claire Chilton
Sometimes a legacy is a good thing, Carla has mixed feelings about hers, because while superpower genetics may cool it's not so easy when you have no idea what to do with or how to control them. It all began when Carla Mainston's brother Joe becomes infected with a deadly disease that has no cure, feeling vulnerable and alone Carla sets out to save her brother, and the colony that outcasted her.
Carla is living literary proof that author's can write new characters that are stereotypical perfect people, or horrendously awkward. She's right in the middle, giving us insight on what it's like to go from being the outcast to literally taking the world onto your shoulders. One of the biggest themes is perseverance and self-reliance, she had to believe in herself and what she was fighting for, and that kept her going.
Trigger Warning: Powers, Isolation, Disease, Death
Sometimes a legacy is a good thing, Carla has mixed feelings about hers, because while superpower genetics may cool it's not so easy when you have no idea what to do with or how to control them. It all began when Carla Mainston's brother Joe becomes infected with a deadly disease that has no cure, feeling vulnerable and alone Carla sets out to save her brother, and the colony that outcasted her.
Carla is living literary proof that author's can write new characters that are stereotypical perfect people, or horrendously awkward. She's right in the middle, giving us insight on what it's like to go from being the outcast to literally taking the world onto your shoulders. One of the biggest themes is perseverance and self-reliance, she had to believe in herself and what she was fighting for, and that kept her going.
Trigger Warning: Powers, Isolation, Disease, Death
September 12, 2020
There was a time when I absolutely loved this. Sure it talks about some interesting themes relevant in our current reality, but no plot at all. There are Wattpad short stories better written than this one.
November 23, 2018
I reading this book and it is amazing.
March 28, 2013
I would recommend this book. While most science fiction tends to be heavy due to the excessive science, this had a more fun feel to it.
Carla is purple in a society filled with green skinned people. She always thought it was just a fluke, a genetic anomaly. Turns out she is not from Derobmi, but from Rhecknaw, where people are purple skinned. That is not the only difference, but will what Carla learns help her save her brother or not?
As in most science fiction, this is set in a different world. There are races of people that display traits and are physically different from each other. The green race Carla is part of loves to clean and keep (at least the surface) spotless clean. There is another character from Zoola who is blue. There they worship being strong and brutely along with beer. Each race is different and I would love to read more about the other various races. We only encounter the green Derobmi, purple Rhecknaw, Blue Zoola, and orange Kalamar. There are several other places I’d love to read more about.
This author sure does have a good sense of humor and you can see it in the writing. The main character is very sarcastic and does not fit well into the prim and proper clean OCD society she was born into. But even so if your read more into the story and the glossary at the end just makes you laugh. The clean society worships the god Ajax because of his bleach and bleach free options and the Budda Wiser Frog god of the beer loving zoolaf race is their choice of worship. When you read this book, take the time to read the glossary. It is a good laugh and quite a great ending to the great story.
Carla is purple in a society filled with green skinned people. She always thought it was just a fluke, a genetic anomaly. Turns out she is not from Derobmi, but from Rhecknaw, where people are purple skinned. That is not the only difference, but will what Carla learns help her save her brother or not?
As in most science fiction, this is set in a different world. There are races of people that display traits and are physically different from each other. The green race Carla is part of loves to clean and keep (at least the surface) spotless clean. There is another character from Zoola who is blue. There they worship being strong and brutely along with beer. Each race is different and I would love to read more about the other various races. We only encounter the green Derobmi, purple Rhecknaw, Blue Zoola, and orange Kalamar. There are several other places I’d love to read more about.
This author sure does have a good sense of humor and you can see it in the writing. The main character is very sarcastic and does not fit well into the prim and proper clean OCD society she was born into. But even so if your read more into the story and the glossary at the end just makes you laugh. The clean society worships the god Ajax because of his bleach and bleach free options and the Budda Wiser Frog god of the beer loving zoolaf race is their choice of worship. When you read this book, take the time to read the glossary. It is a good laugh and quite a great ending to the great story.
May 10, 2014
Carla is a purple girl who lives in a green world called Derombi. In Derombi, everything is green; skin color, eye color, furniture and furnishings - everything. So, it goes without saying that Carla does not fit into her world at all. She feels as if her life is yet to begin and that she has a greater purpose, but she is stuck in a world where her mother cleans and polishes the oven everyday and her brother is perfect in every way. Then a mysterious illness affects all the young people in Derombi, and Parklon suspects the unaffected Carla. When Carla and Parklon meet, he leads her to the archives where she learns that there is a possibility she is not who she always thought she was, and so the adventure begins which leads Carla to the discovery of who she really is. I took pleasure in getting lost in this vibrant, multi-coloured world. I enjoyed the understated references towards racial divide between the different purple, green, blue and orange people. The references to common household cleaning agents incorporated into the story as landmarks and influential people made me smile. I was also amused at how well it was described that when a girl falls in love with a boy, how she could literally lose herself. In this story, for me, there are many favourite highlights, but my ultimate quote is: "Carla had realised there wasn't just one destined adventure in life, there were thousands of them."
January 19, 2016
I actually rate this book about a 4.5/5 stars, I really loved that you got a real feeling for Carla and the other characters of the book. I love that there was a real story to it - and not just a short story (like the first book, Detention) I loved everything about this book - I loved the story-line and where it went with the plot and the characters, I was hanging onto this book while I read. I wanted to know more. I am very pleased that Claire was able to work with the story and do so much more, which I knew she was able to - after reading Detention. The only thing that I wasn't too fond of was at the end was all smiles and butterflies and it was just way too much of a happily ever after and honestly - I was expecting more of a cliff hanger or something foreshadowing the following book. But that's okay I'm still going to be reading Shattered.
I cannot wait to read the third in the series, Shattered. The more I'm reading of Claire, the better the books are getting. I cannot wait to see where the story will go next.
** I received a free ecopy of Legacy for an honest review.
I cannot wait to read the third in the series, Shattered. The more I'm reading of Claire, the better the books are getting. I cannot wait to see where the story will go next.
** I received a free ecopy of Legacy for an honest review.
March 31, 2013
At the risk of flinging myself into the grumpy older reader category, my biggest complaint about this adolescent fantasy is that it is, ahem, a bit too adolescent. I am a big fan of the genre, and chose this book because it was in the top 10 Goodreads list for YA fantasy (& I'd read & enjoyed nearly all of the others -- think gorgeous Richelle Mead & Cassandra Clare). Sadly, this is not in their class. It shows lots of promise by way of character development & originality & pacy plot, but there is an awful lot of just plain silliness. While I enjoyed this (with some reservations), I might leave Book 2 to a younger audience....
November 8, 2012
This is like Stephen King's Sleepwalkers, only better!
This original story about Carla Mainston, a purple girl living in a colony where everyone is green, really grabbed me. She goes to school where they teach you how to clean. I could relate to her not fitting in. She's a bit of a rebel and I love that about her.
My favorite part is about the threat that she might end up having the life sucked out of her by her new boyfriend. I can't wait to read the second book.
This original story about Carla Mainston, a purple girl living in a colony where everyone is green, really grabbed me. She goes to school where they teach you how to clean. I could relate to her not fitting in. She's a bit of a rebel and I love that about her.
My favorite part is about the threat that she might end up having the life sucked out of her by her new boyfriend. I can't wait to read the second book.
November 21, 2012
I really enjoyed this book; it was funny, original and there was never a dull moment. It's an urban fantasy that I just couldn't put down. The main character is a fiesty purple girl living in an OCD green colony, and she really doesn't fit in. I loved the social satire and the strange sci-fi setting in the book. It's a great young adult fantasy, which makes you giggle a lot.
May 12, 2012
I would have given it 2 but it was different and original. The story seemed to not grasp me.It is almost like it went quickly and seemed glossed over. It needed more detail and development. The author didn't envelop me in that world. I still felt like an outsider.
August 31, 2011
I adored this book, it's exciting, bizarre and highly addictive reading. A must read for any age, if you like sci fantasy or ya fiction. Love it!
September 14, 2012
I enjoyed this book, it was well written and the premise behind it was a good one. I just don't think I enjoyed it enough to read any further in the series.
November 4, 2012
It took me a few chapters to get into it and there were a lot of different characters. In the end they all fit together and I couldn't put it down.
April 4, 2015
Original idea but lacked something in the execution.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews