Salt

Salt
by Maurice Gee

Hari has grown up in the Blood Burrows, fighting for food, fighting for life, fighting for freedom.  Pearl has grown up in the Company City, pampered, sheltered, and “educated” to be a good wife.  Hari’s father is kidnapped by the Company and forced to work in the Deep Salt mines.  No one returns from the Deep Salt.  Pearl is being forced to marry a glutton of a lord, but manages to escape with her nurse, Tealeaf.  Hari, Pearl, and Tealeaf all have a special ability – they can speak to each other in their minds, and they can speak to animals.  Now they have banded together to rescue Hari’s father and prepare for the struggle against Company.

I struggled through this book.  I had heard it was a fabulous YA dystopian trilogy from New Zealand, so I had high hopes for it.  Sorry New Zealand – as much as I love your fourth most-popular comedy folk duo, I did not care for this book.  For something that was supposed to be action-driven, the language made it move very slowly, like trudging through a bog.  I didn’t care for any of the characters, and I got lost in some parts of the plot.  All in all, I was disappointed.  I will not be reading the rest of them.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

XVI

XVI
by Julia Karr

Warning!!  Contains spoilers!!

It’s 2150; Chicago.  Nina is just a few short weeks away from her sixteenth birthday.  For her, that’s anything but good news.  Sixteen means something completely different nowadays.  Normally, you just get a government-mandated “XVI” tattoo that announces “I’m old enough to have sex – please take advantage of me.”  Nina, however, has to also deal with the death of her mother, protecting her younger sister from their mother’s abusive boyfriend, protect her aging grandparents, and try to sort out her feelings for this kind of hot guy that might also know about her father who supposedly died just after she was born.

Did that summary sound confusing to anyone else besides me?  That kind of how I feel about this book.  I stand by my earlier statement (which you can read here) that no one should write about 15 year-olds.  It’s just not a good idea.  Emotions don’t make any sense in reality at 15, and literary license skews that even further to where a good story is practically impossible to find. Your mother and your best friend were murdered by the same guy, and you’re worried about your feelings for a boy?!  Puh-lease.  Oh, and of course it’s a much better idea to let a handful of teenagers go to abandoned buildings to search for lost government secrets instead of experienced adults.  That just makes so much sense.  In case you couldn’t tell, I really did not care for the main character.  I thought she was an idiot, and the story had practically no cohesion.  Things weren’t explained – they just were.  I was disappointed.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

A Handmaid’s Tale

A Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood

There’s been a coup; a war.  The United States of America is now the United States of Gilead, a theocracy ruled “strictly” according to the laws in the Christian Bible.  To be anything but a Gildeadean is punishable by death.  Women have no rights, no property.  Some of them don’t even have names, like the Handmaids.  When a Wife is too old to have children and still childless, the couple is given a Handmaid through which they can hopefully start a family.  This is the story of one such Handmaid.

This is the mother of the modern dystopian novel.  The father would probably be George Orwell’s 1984.  Since I’m typically a fan of this genre, I figured I should probably read some of its classics.  I read a lot of reviews giving Atwood flack about the lack of quotation marks and it being difficult to read.  Didn’t bother me.  Alternating between Offred’s current circumstances, flashbacks to life before Gilead and in her training to become a Handmaid, we get a confused vision of how messed up the world has become.  It’s confused because we only get one person’s point of view.  That’s sort of the point of the totalitarian society anyway – people who can’t meet freely can’t freely discuss opinions or unite to overthrow the government.  I found it well-written and compelling.  But I realized why I like YA dystopian literature much more than adult novels: the YA take on this genre almost always has some sort of constant hope, some closure at the end of the narrative (be it one book or several).  You don’t get that in The Handmaid’s Tale.  I felt all the hopelessness and despair of someone who has lost who they are, even while trying to keep some small part of it.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

Thomas wakes up in an elevator not knowing anything about who he was or where he is.  He’s come into some sort of colony of teenage boys.  This colony also happens to be in a maze that the boys have been trying to solve for years.  Even just being there a few hours, the other boys notice there’s something odd about Thomas.  One boy usually comes through the elevator every month.  But the very next day after Thomas arrives, a girl comes through the elevator bearing a strange note that signals that everything the boys knew is about to change.  Thomas doesn’t understand, but he has an inexplicable desire to be a Runner – one of the boys who goes out into the maze to try to solve it.  But there may be a problem – the maze may not even be solvable.

This book has sat on my shelf for months.  Twice.  I finally picked it up… and I didn’t like it.  I mean, it wasn’t poorly written or anything, but it typically appears on bibliographies for reluctant readers or male readers.  Since I am neither, I may have just not been the right audience.  It reminded me of what I remember from Lord of the Flies, but that’s a book I never finished either, and I tried to several times growing up.  The Maze Runner is also a frequently recommended for people who don’t know what to read after they’re done with The Hunger Games trilogy.  I can see why – dystopian lit. with teenage protagonist and nearly impossible odds.  Still, this is not a trilogy I plan on finishing.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Incarceron

Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher

The Wars of Rage have passed and the new world has come.  There are two primary elements to this world: Protocol and Incarceron.  Protocol stipulates that everyone must dress, live, and act a certain way.  This Protocol is made to reflect a time period not unlike Elizabethan England in dress and lifestyle.  This also means that even though humans have been able to create wonderfully intelligent technology, they are rarely allowed to use it.  Incarceron is a supposed Paradise.  It’s actually a prison.  In the beginning, the idea was to put all of the criminals into Incarceron, provide them with food, education, and anything they might need, and create a Utopia.  But Incarceron was smart, and developed a mind and a will of its own.  And humans are humans.  Finn is a prisoner in Incarceron, but he remembers things that no one can explain to him.  One old man believes that he is from the Outside, and that he will guide everyone to escape.  Claudia is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron.  She has never wanted for anything.  She has been bred and educated to be the next queen of the Realm.  As her wedding to the Queen’s annoying son approaches, Claudia is learning more and more about her past.  Both Finn and Claudia have discovered crystal keys that allow them to communicate with one another.  Claudia vows to do what she can to help Finn and his companions escape this prison-promised-paradise, but that may prove more difficult than she had originally thought.

This book took awhile for me to get into, and even longer before I followed everything.  Fisher makes a common mistake (in my personal opinion) that I see happening in too many YA novels: you are presented with the names of far too many characters at once.  You cannot follow who they are, with whom they go, and what they know.  It can be frustrating.  But once the characters get filed away properly, the story takes over.  There are some elements which are highly predictable, and some that I didn’t see coming at all.  Fisher’s ending clearly points to a sequel (Sapphique).  In my opinion, this book is not a must-read.  But if you happen to pick it up, it will not be a waste of your time, either.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Mockingjay

Mockingjay
by Suzanne Collins

Here is where I would summarize the story.  But for all of you who have invested so much time and emotion into the lives of Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and others, I don’t want to color it in any way.  Just know that it is here, and you finally find out what happens to everyone.

It’s nearly midnight, and I just finished a 3-day epic wherein I read the entire Hunger Games trilogy.  There are scores of emotions that went through me as I read them.  The most interesting one was guilt: here I am eating pizza and M&Ms reading about the lives of these people whom I’ve never met (but I feel like I know them) as they are struggling for survival.  How does this make me any better than the Capitol?  Granted they are fictional, but that feeling hit me yesterday morning about halfway though Catching Fire.  Mockingjay takes on a new style in its setting–there are no official Games, but nothing is safe.  The twists and turns… you never know who you can trust.  There is mass confusion in the story and in the narrative, which merely reflect the situation in Panem.  Sometimes you may have to reread portions just to make sure you caught everything.

For the record, I like the references to ancient Rome, Collins.

In my opinion, it ended the way it should have.  Really it was the only way it could end given the set up of the past two years.  But it was too dear a cost to get there.  And I resent that.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think it’s unoriginal how Hunger Games fans have borrowed from the New Moon drama, but I am curious…

To my readers: whether or not you’ve read Mockingjay, on which side do you fall?  Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Gathering Blue

Gathering Blue
by Lois Lowry

The second in a loose trilogy that started with The Giver, Gathering Blue is the story of Kira, a girl with a bad leg and strong, nimble hands.  When the book opens, Kira is watching over the body of her mother as her spirit departs.  Her father was attacked by beasts before she was born, so now she is alone without any family to care for her.  No other family will take her in and no one will marry her because of her bad leg.  When one woman from the village decides to try to eliminate Kira, the elders of the village protect her, give her a place to stay with running water and hot meals, and a very important job to do.  Her mother used to make repairs to the Robe, an artifact that tells the history of humankind.  Kira’s skill surpasses her mother’s, and it is her job to restore it.  While living in this new place, Kira meets Thomas, a boy whose skill is in woodcarving, and befriends Matt, a boy from the Fen (the slums) and his little dog Branch.  While things seem all well and good, Kira begins to wonder about how she and Thomas ended up there, their stories so similar, and what the elders really want them for.

In The Giver, Lowry looks at a dystopian world that has technologically surpassed the present.  In Gathering Blue, it seems as though society has reverted back to its early days, people living in terrible conditions with crude tools and where girls aren’t allowed to learn to read.  I am fascinated with Lowry’s ability to create such societies… especially the naming traditions of this particular culture.  And I love the strong female lead in Kira.  She was kept alive after she was born, even with the bad leg, because her mother saw the brightness in her eyes.  In this book, Lowry explores the work of artists, how their art brings them to life and also takes on a life of its own, until it may be stifled by another’s will.  I don’t know if she was bring criticized when she was writing this, but it’s interesting to think about.  In my opinion, Gathering Blue leaves the reader with a lot more hope for change that The Giver does, which makes me anxious to read the last book in this almost-trilogy, Messenger.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

The Giver

The Giver
by Lois Lowry

Jonas was born into an ideal world.  He’s never been hungry or lonely, and he’s never really had to worry about anything.  In his world, when children turn twelve, they are given their assignment, their purpose and vocation in the community.  For some, it’s an obvious choice.  All of their volunteer hours are spent in one place and they know exactly what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives.  This is the only thing Jonas is apprehensive about.  He doesn’t know.  At the Ceremony of Twelves, he is named the community’s next Receiver of Memory.  This is a very important job that hardly any body knows about.  All of the things that make his world “ideal” are made possible because one person keeps all of the memories that made things difficult, unpredictable, and unequal before.  The Giver is the former Receiver.  It is his job to impart all of the memories to Jonas.  Some memories are beautiful, such as colors and horseback riding.  Others are very, very painful, such as the memory of war.  As Jonas learns more and more about what the world used to be like, and more and more about his “ideal” world, the less he feels a duty to protect it.  He also comes to the conclusion that the sacrifice his community has made no longer should be put on one person – everyone needs the memories.  And he’s going to do something about it.

So somehow I made it through my childhood without ever reading anything by Lois Lowry.  This is my first encounter with her work.  And wow.  I am immediately captivated by how it set the stage for contemporary YA literature.  It deals with dystopias, addresses major modern-day problems, and shows the character’s complete change of mind and heart toward the life he’s always lived.  It’s fascinating to wrap your mind around this colorless, soundless, loveless society.  It’s hard to imagine being the one person who has ever experience color.  Or music.  Can you imagine a life without these things?  A very, very good book.  I look forward to catching up and reading more of her work.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com.

Specials

Specials
by Scott Westerfeld

Summer refreshment after work: iced grande sweetened green tea.

Warning!  Contains spoilers for Uglies and Pretties!!

Tally Youngblood has always been special.  Now everyone knows it.  She has become a Cutter, part of the special Specials, on the side of Dr. Cable.  It’s up to her, Shay, and the other former Crims to finally squelch David and the New Smokies who have been sneaking the “cure” into New Pretty Town.  The only thing that Tally doesn’t like about being special is that Zane isn’t with her and can’t enjoy the new iciness that comes from totally sensing everything.  In her efforts to get Zane up to the expectations of being a Cutter, Tally’s perception of the world is totally altered once again, and it’s much, much bigger than she ever imagined.  And her city is right smack dab on the edge of a revolution that Tally just may have started…

So let’s just say that life as Tally Youngblood sucks majorly.  Her mind is constantly being altered and being forced into making horrid choices.  And when she does make a choice, inevitably, someone gets hurt.  There were some twists that I didn’t expect and some that I didn’t appreciate.  Didn’t like the ending…  Don’t know how I would have written it, but I didn’t like it.  Pretties was definitely my favorite in this series – amazing conflict, energy, and style.  Specials just didn’t deliver the same way.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com

Pretties

Pretties
by Scott Westerfeld

Warning!  Contains spoilers for the book Uglies!  Do not proceed if you want to be surprised at the end of Uglies!

Tally’s life is totally winning – she’s gorgeous, has an amazingly hot boyfriend, and is part of the best clique in New Pretty Town… but something doesn’t seem right.  A letter from her past confirms that there’s more to life than partying all the time.  Now Tally is on a mission to find out what’s really going on inside her head and inside her city.  She’s not alone either; Zane, her boyfriend and head of the Crims, and a good portion of their clique are determined to help Tally and Zane escape the confines of the city and to reach The New Smokies.  But the past keeps rearing its ugly head in new ways, such as remembered betrayals and terrible hormones.  Is an ugly past with an ugly future worth the cost of having your freedom?

A good portion of this story involves keeping the characters’ adrenaline pumping in order to keep their minds lucid.  I spent an entire afternoon reading the first 2/3 of the book… and my heart was racing by the time I had to go to work.  It’s so easy to get caught up in these character’s lives.  But by the end, I’m left thinking, “This poor girl CAN’T catch a break!”  Like, really, what else can they do to Tally?  She’s really just becoming a pawn of Special Circumstances, which is what they wanted all along.  And don’t even get me started on the boy-emotional issues she has to deal with.  Stupid Dr. Cable!  I don’t know if I’m hoping for a good ending or a bad one.  I must say, though, that I really enjoy how Westerfeld incorporated dreams into the telling of this story.  Final chapter = super awesome.

There are also a few things I noticed about this society that Westerfeld has created that I’d like to comment on:

• It seems that part of the pretty operation involves skin toning, and everyone has olive skin.  Is there no other race in this world?  What do the pretty cities in Africa do?
• Tally and Zane seem to live quite the Bohemian lifestyle – hardly eating and getting very thin (though there is a purpose for that), mostly consuming coffee and pills, living together… it’s not glorified, but it’s just something interesting I noticed.
  
• I also find it interesting that with all of this new technology that makes life better, no one has come up with anything to replace toilet paper in 300 years.

Image taken from http://www.amazon.com