Hello, friends! As you may recall, Holly and I have been promising for basically years to read The 100 since we are so enamored (read: rabid, uncontrollable fangirls) with the show version, and have made you scroll through show recaps that you likely gave zero fucks about. (Except for a few of you, and we extra love- and owe- you!)
Now… as you can imagine, we spent most of our time discussing the show, not the book, but I pieced together what I could. This is also probably chock-full of spoilers. About the book, and at least the first episode or two of the show. You can’t contain us when it comes to The 100 talk, okay? Okay. 
The 100 by Kass Morgan Series: The 100 #1
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on March 18th 2014
Pages: 323
Format:Paperback
Source:Purchased
No one has set foot on Earth in centuries -- until now.
Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.
CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.
Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.
Our Thoughts
So, I decided we’d do a Bottom Line (or basically, a TL;DR in this case!)
Shannon’s Bottom Line:
If we pretend that this is just a book? I guess I’d give it around 3 stars. It’s super easy to read, quick and entertaining. Also, parasitic deer head. But the characters aren’t very developed, and neither is the world. Also, the romance reeks of insta-love and a possible triangle. Yeah, I’d probably round it up to 3 for sheer entertainment value.
But if we compare it to the show? There’s so much nope here I don’t even know where to begin! No Murphy, Raven, Finn, Lincoln, Abby, Monty, Jasper… shall I go on? And the show characters that are here are so, so much more complex on the show than the book. Ditto the world building, the relationships, the plot… the show is incredibly complex (and I don’t mean that just because it is longer- I mean, based on just the first couple episidoes alone), and the book skims the surface at best.
So… I guess Shannon is reading the next books? BRING. IT.
Holly’s Bottom Line:
Basically to sum it up: it was not as good as the TV show 
Our Rating:
I haven’t seen the show (Shhh I’m getting to it) but the book WAS AWFUL.? So far someone who isn’t even biased by the show’s apparent awesome, IT WAS STILL PRETTY BAD hahahah…oh dear. I think I gave it 1-star for just lack of plot and less-than-stallar writing. 🙁 Good on you both for suffering through though. And your fangirling is HILARIOUS AND WONDERFUL.
It’s funny because it is HARD to be unbiased- I was constantly wondering if I wasn’t liking the book because of the BOOK or because of the SHOW but then I realized… both! ? I think it would be like, an okay “into to YA” book- it’s so easy to read and I DID want to know what happened? But everything else… well, that was all a complete mess. As you can tell, the book is NOTHING like the show. At all. So you have nothing to worry about. I think if I had made Holly give it a star rating, she’d have given it 1 star too. I hated it a little less, as you can tell, but… I was mostly apathetic? Now, go watch the SHOW!!! 😀
You two are hilarious.
But seriously, knowing how much you LOVE the show, why isn’t the book better. Isn’t it based off the book(s) (seriously, I don’t know isn’t it a series)?
Who decided to make this not-so-good book a show? There are about a hundred books worthy of shows and they don’t have them yet.
Anyways, this was entertaining! Great post.
Yeah, so far there are 3 books (going to be a 4th in December or something) but the show is like, a MILLION times better. I cannot even properly explain how much better. And I have NO IDEA how this book got to be a show- because if I had read the book first, I probably would have never even TRIED the show- and see what I would have missed out on? It is VERY loosely based, especially at this point. The first book was about… a third of the pilot episode. The show is just sooooo much more in depth, the characters are phenomenal, the struggle of morality, the relationships, GAH the whole thing is so on point. And the book? Well, it’s one giant sized trope, basically.
I love the show. I didn’t know it was based on a book until later on. Even though you two don’t like it as much as the show, you two got interested in reading the book.
I had heard about the book, but then was too afraid to read it after seeing some of the less than stellar reviews- but of course, my obsession got the best of me 😉
Yes!! The book- haven’t read it but tickled to see you guys tackle it.And Glass? Who the $%^& is that? No doubt. Give me RAVEN. And I had to laugh at your comments about early Bellamy- I thought he was such a dick the first few episodes, and now I love the guy.Same w/ Murph. I was mixed on Finn. And Clarke’s parents experimented on kids? No Murphy? Abby dies? Yikes that suxxors. I do like the cover though. I would WANT to like this if I read it, but would probably get so frustrated.
At least parasitic deer head. Why aren’t we seeing more f’ed up animals on the show? I want mutants!
Oh did you see the stuff from Comic con? They leaked some details about S4- I wish I had the link. I was not happy to see Clarkie’s comments about Bellarke… she’s got it all wrong. 🙂
I HATED early Bellamy! Holly always liked him, but I hated him SO MUCH, I was Team Finn- until he killed everyone. But I liked Bellamy by that point so it was okay. I think Finn’s death did more than his life ever could have (in terms of plot- that sounds awful from like, a human perspective ?)
It is all so DIFFERENT! Apparently, a big part of the next book(s) take place at Mt Weather so… I am kind of interested. There is supposedly not as much Grounder stuff, which makes me sad though. It’s all just so WEIRD.
And yeah, we DO need more weird animals- because it isn’t reasonable that they’d have like, one kid with a birth defect and 2 jacked up animals and that is IT. We need more!
I DID see the stuff from SDCC- I was actually going to Tweet to you about Roan (which is incidentally when I realized that I somehow wasn’t following you bwhahah) being promoted to regular (but what about Harper?!?!). And Eliza’s thing about Bellarke… I was so sad at first, BUT I feel like a few things are important: 1) She may have her own feelings of course, but she also isn’t in charge hahha- plus, she’s super close to Alycia IRL, so it makes sense that she’d be sad about that, from a personal perspective. And 2)- I searched for like, an HOUR to find this clip from that interview, and I cannot locate it, but if you find it, there’s a point where she kind of looks down after saying that Bellarke is shit and “obviously won’t happen”- and she like, can’t keep a straight face. Like, she looks away, and almost smiles. Which makes me think that she isn’t allowed to say a damn thing about Bellarke- so maybe it was just her way of throwing us off. Just my (ridiculously hopeful) theory 😉
Oh that’s good news- see I didn’t see that part, I just caught an article somewhere. That would be awesome if she’s playing coy. 🙂 And Roan is a regular? I didn’t see THAT. Good news. ever since they killed him off on Black Sails I was like, what show will this guy show up on now? Guess we know. 🙂
I liked the Mt. Weather storyline, with the duplicity and the people being drained and Grounders in cages- it was so deliciously creepy. So I hope if the books go there it’s interesting, because that would be cool. But that’s been my favorite season of the show- S2. All the running around in caves and cannibal Grounders- lol.
And good point about Finn- he seemed like such a nice guy, reasonable, and then he went and shot all those people. I was stunned. I know he felt threatened at the time, but man that was tough. That was like a Game of Thrones moment lol, one of those gamechangers… they’re not afraid to go dark on this show, and I love that.
YEP he’s been promoted, which I think was almost inevitable since they killed off so many of the other key Grounders- Ontari, Lexa, Lincoln, etc, there was no one left but him, Indra, and Luna (who will also be back, by the way!) Plus I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with a guy Grounder as one of the leaders- we’ve really only seen female Grounder leaders so far, with Anya, Roan’s Mom, Lexa, Luna, and Ontari- so I am curious! Of course, that is IF Roan is in charge like I am assuming ?
Season 2 was absolutely the most messed up, which I think was GREAT- but also proved very hard to beat in Season 3. I didn’t dislike Season 3 though, I think it was just more character driven. Season 4… well I don’t know WHAT to expect. I have been trying to stay FAR away from spoilers (I don’t really think the casting is a huge spoiler- plus it’s kind of hard to avoid since Zach is in all the cast photos hahah).
Totally agree about Finn. The peacemaker of the group suddenly loses his shit and kills 18 innocent people… and that is when you know that the message is clear: ANYONE is capable of ANYTHING, given the proper provocation. There are no saints on this show, and it is one of the reasons it is so compelling for sure. I loved when Maya said, as she died “none of us is innocent”, because it was SO TRUE.
Can January maybe come faster? How am I even wishing for January!?!
YAY FOR RONAN. /random
Here you go, Miss Vlora. 😀
Even though I was in this discussion, I totally reread this post a couple times. LOL. I just love discussing anything relating to The 100 with you. And I’m so glad you’re taking one for the team, bc I sure as hell aren’t gonna read Day 21. HAHAHAHAHA. Cannot wait for your rants <3
Bwhaha I wish I didn’t have so many review books right now, because I would totally bust out the Day 21! Hopefully after ARC August I will be caught up- but I hate the thought of us waiting a month. Though it isn’t like it’s going to be awesome so… ?
Hello.
I know nothing about The 100. But I am not surprised that you guys disliked it LOL.
WATCH THE SHOW. I love that you used my own name, you make me chuckle.
I like the book, hated the tv show! But didn’t like the book enough to bother with books two and three.
Oooh how long did you give the show? Because I *almost* quit after the first couple episodes, but then it got SO much better! But yeah, I feel you about the books- I will read 2-4, just because I am obsessed with the show and can’t back down from a challenge 😉
I, for one, am personally offended you went that long without talking about Bellamy.
Anyway. I DEFINITELY think this is a time when we can all safely say the show is better than the books, and I haven’t even read the books. I do plan to, though, mainly so I CAN FINALLY FUCKING GET CANON BELLARKE. I’ve heard that Bellamy gets a little better in the third book though obviously nothing will ever beat Bob Morley.
ALSO, NO LINCOLN? UNACCEPTABLE
Do we even like Bellamy, or do we just like Bob at this point? Let’s be real, it’s probably more Bob ?
No Lincoln is never acceptable ANYWHERE. (If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off in the corner sobbing for the rest of time). And you must read the books! Read Day 21 with me, since Holly won’t 😉 Canon Bellarke is fine, but I was like… mad that it wasn’t OUR Bellarke. Maybe we don’t actually ship Bellarke and we just want Bellamy for ourselves? Who even knows.
I love reading your guys’ recaps, so as soon as I saw this post I was ALL OVER IT. Y’all really took one for the team, because every time I’ve even glanced at this book at the library I just as soon looked away. From the sound of it, though, the book might actually be *intriguingly* bad. But the loss of all those characters…! The real props goes to the show writers and creates who sorted through all that crap and decided they could make a gem of a show from it. Btw, love the Murphy gifs. And time for one last confession — I was definitely disappointed by season 3. Seasons 1 & 2 were unbelievably strong, but some of the plot lines and bum episodes in season 3… I really hope the show gets its mojo back. 🙁
AWW thank you! Seriously, I do not understand HOW the show writers. producers, etc EVER managed to create THAT from THIS, which sounds harsh but it’s true.
You know, I am rewatching Season 3 right now and… I kind of agree? I mean, I was into it when it aired, and I think there were some awesome episodes and some VERY epic moments, but as a whole I kind of agree- mostly I think because I HATED the City of Light storyline, and I also was really sick of the Farm Station from like, minute one. Pike and Hannah were awful from the minute they met up with Kane, Bellamy, Monty, and Indra. Like, the Arkians ALL vouched for Indra and still, Farm Station was awful to her. What even!?
BUT I think Season 4 will be amazing- I mean, they set it up to be, so I KNOW the potential is there. I remember at the end of Season 2 thinking that while the season was epic, the setup for Season 3 was lackluster at best- which is probably why it disappointed! (Fingers are crossed, at least!)
Wow, this is so objective hahaha. I don’t plan to read this because I keep hearing it sucks and the show is better, but I was interested in your opinion. Also, I agree with Val I could tell you literally nothing about the book after this. 😀 (Except maybe that post-apocalyptic book parents are horrible at naming children, but we knew that already.)
HEY NOW. We told you that it sucks! And that Clarke’s parents tested on children, and that there is someone named Glass who is a cheap Raven knock-off. We also tell you that Wells doesn’t die AND that there is a Bellarke kiss in like, minute 2. AND that the parasitic deer head was still there. SO YOU KNOW STUFF. ?
Just wait until we discuss Day 21, and Holly hasn’t even read the book ?
I’ve heard so many people say that the show is better, so I don’t think I’m ever going to read the books. In terms of movies/shows I prefer over books, I am usually very good at keeping the two mediums separate so I can judge them on their own merit as opposed to comparing one against the other. So I can’t say!
I am impressed that you can keep them separate! I am SO BAD at it, as you can see above- and I wasn’t even as bad as Holly was ? I don’t really think the books are worth it, even if you CAN separate them- but I will have a better idea of how true that is after I finish them all- and I WILL finish them all, someday 😉