Summary: During Hilter's reign over Nazi Germany, Death is very busy collecting souls. While collecting the soul of a young boy, Death first encounters Liesel Meninger, who steals a book she happens upon near her brother's grave. Over the years, Death touches Liesel's life indirectly many times, but it is only when Death becomes a book thief himself that he learns Liesel's whole intriguing story. In the face of the unimaginable horrow of war, Death is compelled by Liesel's kindness and by the actions of her friends and family to realise humans are more complex than he will ever understand.
Dystopian Issues: War, Holocaust, Totalitarian Government
Part of a Series: No
Age of Main Character: Death's age is unknown, but Liesel is nine years old at the beginning of the story
Number of Pages: 550
Year of Publication: 2005
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books
Review: What I need to remind myself about this book is that Death is the main character, not Liesel. If Death is the main character in addition to his narrating duties, then I can't get mad at Zusak for ending the tale of Liesel so abruptly and insufficiently. Instead, Liesel's story is merely a catalyst for the profound change in Death, transforming him from a passive collector of souls to a philosopher on the varying nature of humanity.
Using Death as a narrator allows Zusak to take a non-linear approach to his tale. Unfortunately this style often meanders and at times ruins the natural suspense of his own story.
I have to give kudos to Zusak though, because somehow he manages to make Death not only likeable, but an angel of mercy as opposed to a villain. Death's point of view of World War II is apt, powerful, and fresh.
While I felt Zusak could have been more concise, I did enjoy the journey of 550 pages that he took me on. His portrayal of Hitler as a Word Shaker and the atmosphere of Nazi Germany was insightful and gives the reader a lot to think about.
I don't find Zusak to be the smoothest writer, but I am continually intrigues by his ideas. For that reason, The Book Thief is definitely worth reading.
Real Life Dystopias: I am including The Book Thief on my dystopian review site because I believe dystopias do not have to be fictional to count under the dystopian genre. The Book Thief is an excellent example of a fictional account of the real life dystopia that was Nazi Germany and World War II.
Memorable Quotes: "Yes, often, I am reminded of her, and in one of my vast array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each one extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt - an immense leap of an attempt - to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.
Here it is. One of a handful.
The Book Thief.
If you feel like it, come with me. I will tell you a story.
I'll show you something."
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, pgs. 14-15
"***A SMALL PIECE OF TRUTH***
I do not carry a sickle or scythe.
I only wear a hooded black robe when it's cold
And I don't have those skull-like
facial features you seem to enjoy
pinning on me from a distance. You
want to know what I truly look like?
I'll help you out. Find yourself
a mirror while I continue."
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, pg 307
"The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them, there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing. There would be no limping prisoners, no need for consolation or wordly tricks to make us feel better."
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, pg 521
"I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, pg 550
Author Website: www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Friday, September 14, 2012
Exodus by Julie Bertagna
Summary:
15 year-old Maya lives on an island that grows smaller every
year as the polar ice caps melt. She and
her family are forced to leave the world they know in search of a new one, a
sky city made to house the refugees of diminishing land masses. Unfortunately in the city Maya finally
discovers, all refugees are not considered equal and things are more
complicated than she ever imagined. With
the help of a tree-dwelling people and a collection of misfit children, Maya fights
against the system for the sake of equality, survival, and the people she
loves.
Dystopian Issues: Climate Change, Slavery, Class System
Part of a Series: The first book in the Exodus series
Next in Series: Zenith
Age of Main Character: 15
Number of Pages: 337
Year of Publication: 2002
Publisher: Young Picador
Review: I've read Julie Bertagna's Opposite of Chocolate (not a dystopia) and I enjoyed her quirky characters and unique story. When I read Exodus however, I did not even identify it as being written by the same author until I read Bertagna's biography.
Bertagna is exploring an interesting subject; what will happen to the world when the polar ice caps melt and land masses shrink significantly. If humankind does not venture out into the cosmos as suggested in several science fiction novels, movies, and tv shows, how will the human race survive?
The answer is not all of us will. But in Bertagna's book, some will survive on the diminished land masses and some will move to new sky cities. Maya is a land-dweller who lives in a world of limited technology. The internet as we know it now is in complete disarray and exists as a relic as opposed to an information superhighway. Still Maya manages to make contact with someone who calls himself Fox, a resident of something called a sky city that no one in Maya's community has ever heard of. When rising waters force Maya to leave her home with others from her community, they set out in search of the elusive cities.
Other communities have faced similar problems and had similar ideas though, because when Maya reaches the city with the survivors of her community it is surrounded by a boundary designed to keep out refugees like herself. Resourceful, determined and driven by grief however, Maya manages to find her way inside the boundary yet still outside the city itself. I found Bertagna's descriptions of Maya's surroundings to be convoluted, but things became even more confusing when Maya discovers a gang of children without the ability to speak and then a group of tree-dwelling people who have escaped from the sky city.
The children and the tree-dwellers have vastly unusual names that are jarring to the story. I'm not sure why living in a tree means you have to have a weird name but it seems to be a prerequiste. Maya finds out that not only are new people not allowed in the city, the city also takes the homeless children that live below to use for slave labour. When one of her friends is captured and taken away, Maya feels compelled to do something about it.
Overall, the story came off as disorganized and, at times, boring. I didn't connect with Maya as a character, I had problems when she finally meets Fox and seems to fall in love with him overnight and I was confused while trying to understand how the sky cities ran and developed in the first place. This is the first book in a trilogy though, so it is possible more answers are provided in later books. The problem is this book did not make me want to read the other ones.
What I did like wasn't even the main point of the story, it seemed to be an aside point Bertagna was trying to make about how women don't have the opportunity to achieve as much as men because they have children instead. At the same time, women accomplish more than men because each child born is like giving birth to a living dream. It's poetic and has truth to it in its own right, but did not contribute to the overall plot or story.
I expected more from Bertagna, especially with such a thought-provoking preface quote, but I was very disappointed.
Real Life Dystopias: The exploitation of people against their will is not a new thing. North America's sordid history of selling Africans into slavery is a prime example. Al Gore has warned us about the perils of climate change, and one only has to read a Charles Dickens' novel to know how a class system works.
But to pick up on Bertagna's aside, another dystopia is the disparity between men and women, and the different values put on each sex's accomplishments. Bertagna raises some good points, why aren't women valued and respected more for their ability to grow and raise the continuing generations of the human race? And what would women be able to accomplish if they did not feel the ties and responsibilities of family? However, where would the world be if women didn't feel such ties?
Memorable Quotes: "Now retrack to the dawn of the world's drowning. Stand at the fragile moment before the devastation begins, and wonder. Is this where we stand now, right here on the brink?"
- Exodus by Julie Bertagna, preface
"As Broomielaw trails off into thought, Mara remembers what bothered her as she walked through the vast halls of the university, looking at the portraits of the golden names. There were no dreamswomen. Apart from the odd mythical figure or queen, not one of the golden names had belonged to a woman. All the great dreamers had been men.
Now Mara sees how it could have happened. The women might have dreamed just as hard - as hard as Broomielaw does now - but their dreams had become all tangled up with the knit of ordinary life, with meal-making and babycare and nest-building. Yet wasn't precious little Clayslaps more wonderful than anything dreamed up by those golden names?"
- Exodus by Julie Bertagna, pg 169
"'But women grow the living dreams, the human ones,' Gorbals argues. 'A human being is the greatest creation of all. Each of us is a new living dream.'"
- Exodus by Julie Bertagna, pg 175
Author Website: http://www.juliebertagna.com/
Dystopian Issues: Climate Change, Slavery, Class System
Part of a Series: The first book in the Exodus series
Next in Series: Zenith
Age of Main Character: 15
Number of Pages: 337
Year of Publication: 2002
Publisher: Young Picador
Review: I've read Julie Bertagna's Opposite of Chocolate (not a dystopia) and I enjoyed her quirky characters and unique story. When I read Exodus however, I did not even identify it as being written by the same author until I read Bertagna's biography.
Bertagna is exploring an interesting subject; what will happen to the world when the polar ice caps melt and land masses shrink significantly. If humankind does not venture out into the cosmos as suggested in several science fiction novels, movies, and tv shows, how will the human race survive?
The answer is not all of us will. But in Bertagna's book, some will survive on the diminished land masses and some will move to new sky cities. Maya is a land-dweller who lives in a world of limited technology. The internet as we know it now is in complete disarray and exists as a relic as opposed to an information superhighway. Still Maya manages to make contact with someone who calls himself Fox, a resident of something called a sky city that no one in Maya's community has ever heard of. When rising waters force Maya to leave her home with others from her community, they set out in search of the elusive cities.
Other communities have faced similar problems and had similar ideas though, because when Maya reaches the city with the survivors of her community it is surrounded by a boundary designed to keep out refugees like herself. Resourceful, determined and driven by grief however, Maya manages to find her way inside the boundary yet still outside the city itself. I found Bertagna's descriptions of Maya's surroundings to be convoluted, but things became even more confusing when Maya discovers a gang of children without the ability to speak and then a group of tree-dwelling people who have escaped from the sky city.
The children and the tree-dwellers have vastly unusual names that are jarring to the story. I'm not sure why living in a tree means you have to have a weird name but it seems to be a prerequiste. Maya finds out that not only are new people not allowed in the city, the city also takes the homeless children that live below to use for slave labour. When one of her friends is captured and taken away, Maya feels compelled to do something about it.
Overall, the story came off as disorganized and, at times, boring. I didn't connect with Maya as a character, I had problems when she finally meets Fox and seems to fall in love with him overnight and I was confused while trying to understand how the sky cities ran and developed in the first place. This is the first book in a trilogy though, so it is possible more answers are provided in later books. The problem is this book did not make me want to read the other ones.
What I did like wasn't even the main point of the story, it seemed to be an aside point Bertagna was trying to make about how women don't have the opportunity to achieve as much as men because they have children instead. At the same time, women accomplish more than men because each child born is like giving birth to a living dream. It's poetic and has truth to it in its own right, but did not contribute to the overall plot or story.
I expected more from Bertagna, especially with such a thought-provoking preface quote, but I was very disappointed.
Real Life Dystopias: The exploitation of people against their will is not a new thing. North America's sordid history of selling Africans into slavery is a prime example. Al Gore has warned us about the perils of climate change, and one only has to read a Charles Dickens' novel to know how a class system works.
But to pick up on Bertagna's aside, another dystopia is the disparity between men and women, and the different values put on each sex's accomplishments. Bertagna raises some good points, why aren't women valued and respected more for their ability to grow and raise the continuing generations of the human race? And what would women be able to accomplish if they did not feel the ties and responsibilities of family? However, where would the world be if women didn't feel such ties?
Memorable Quotes: "Now retrack to the dawn of the world's drowning. Stand at the fragile moment before the devastation begins, and wonder. Is this where we stand now, right here on the brink?"
- Exodus by Julie Bertagna, preface
"As Broomielaw trails off into thought, Mara remembers what bothered her as she walked through the vast halls of the university, looking at the portraits of the golden names. There were no dreamswomen. Apart from the odd mythical figure or queen, not one of the golden names had belonged to a woman. All the great dreamers had been men.
Now Mara sees how it could have happened. The women might have dreamed just as hard - as hard as Broomielaw does now - but their dreams had become all tangled up with the knit of ordinary life, with meal-making and babycare and nest-building. Yet wasn't precious little Clayslaps more wonderful than anything dreamed up by those golden names?"
- Exodus by Julie Bertagna, pg 169
"'But women grow the living dreams, the human ones,' Gorbals argues. 'A human being is the greatest creation of all. Each of us is a new living dream.'"
- Exodus by Julie Bertagna, pg 175
Author Website: http://www.juliebertagna.com/
Friday, September 7, 2012
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Summary: When Jinn and Phyllis recover a bottle floating in space, they discover the written account of Ulysse Mérou, journalist from Earth. Mérou’s tale describes travelling to a distant sun only to find an orbiting planet very similar to Earth with just one main difference. On Soror, apes rule the planet and humans are the animals. Mérou’s and the apes’ worlds are turned upside-down as he struggles to demonstrate his intelligence and sentience in a place where humans are hunted for sport and used for science. With the help of chimpanzees Zira and Cornelius he just might make it off Soror and back to Earth alive.
Dystopian Issues: Superior Nature of Man
Part of a Series: No sequel book, but there are plenty when it comes to the movies
Next in Series: Return to the Planet of the Apes or Rise of the Planet of the Apes movies
Age of Main Character: He is an adult
Year of Publication: 1963
Publisher: The edition I read was published by the Penguin Group Limited in 2001.
Review: This is my first review (to my knowledge) of a book that has a movie franchise connected to it. Technically, the book itself is science fiction, while the movie franchise is both dystopian and science fiction.
In my opinion, all dystopias count as science fiction but not all science fiction can be considered dystopias. Dystopias are versions of our world, our society, gone wrong. In Planet of the Apes, the novel, Ulysse and his two friends travel to Soror, another world. In that world it was perfectly normal for Apes to be the dominant species over man and so it does not technically count as a dystopia. You have to read the whole book to understand why it made my list.
There is great beauty in an intriguing, well-expressed idea and Boulle's book was so spell-binding that it inspired seven movies and a tv series. Watching the original five movies released in the late sixties and the early seventies made me wish I was alive when they came out, even though they grew progressively worse in plot structure and logical storylines. I hated Tim Burton's remake interpretation that came out in 2001, but loved The Rise of the Planet of the Apes which came out in 2011 and explained how apes grew to be verbal in the first place.
In terms of writing style, I find Boulle to be dry and philosophical. The plot moves slowly and the ending is suprising and unsatisfying. But at the same time, I couldn't stop reading because I was so enamoured by his idea. What if homosapiens are not "the kings of creation" we consider ourselves to be? If we expect to be treated with respect and dignity, then shouldn't other species expect to be treated the same way by us as well?
Sometimes the best way to understand our society is tell a story about a vastly different society and let readers draw their own parallels. Boulle, whether he intended to or not, does an excellent job of this. First by writing Planet of the Apes the book which shows us how apes would form a society like ours and how they would treat humans, and second by exploring how humans would treat apes as an increasingly sentient and verbal species through the movie series. Boulle's work can also be viewed as a commentary on the struggle for all human kind to be considered equal.
The next Planet of the Apes movie (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is set to come out in 2014. Can't wait.
Real-Life Dystopias: I love, love, love in the first and third movies when Zira explains that the medical testing the apes are doing on the humans are as wrong as humans doing medical testing on apes. Our real-life dystopia is that advancing medical science requires animal testing. Sometimes on animals that are more sentient than we always realise. When the situation is twisted around so that the apes are the scientists and the humans are the test subjects, it becomes easier to see how wrong it is. Unfortunately, at times it is a necessary evil for the sake of perfecting medical procedures and medication to save human lives.
Memorable Quotes: "Yes, I, one of the kings of creation, started circling round my beauty; I, the ultimate achievement of millenary evolution, in front of this collection of monkeys eagerly watching me, in front of an old orang-outang dictating notes to his secretary, in front of a female chimpanzee smiling with self-satisfaction, in front of a couple of chuckling gorillas; I, a man, excusing myself on the grounds of exceptional cosmic circumstances, and persuading myself for the moment that there exist more things on the planets and in the heavens than human philosophy has ever imagined; I, Ulysse Merou, embarked like a peacock round the gorgeous Nova, on the love display."
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, pg 75
"We were speaking french, for, as I have said, she was quicker to learn my language than I hers. At the outset there were some difficulties of interpretation, the words 'man' and 'monkey' not evoking the same creatures for us; but this snag was quickly smoothed out. Each time she said 'monkey,' I mentally translated 'superior being, the height of evolution.' When she spoke about me, I knew she meant bestial creatures endowed with a certain sense of imitation and presenting a few anatomical similarities to monkeys but of an embryonic psychism and devoid of the power of thought."
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, pg 83-84
"'Above all do be careful not to turn on passers-by or bare your teeth or scratch a trustful child who might come up and pet you. I don't want to muzzle you but. . . .'
She stopped short and burst out laughing.
'Forgive me, forgive me!' she cried. 'I keep forgetting you have a mind like a monkey."
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, pg 89
Author Web Site: Pierre Boulle died in 1994 and does not have an official web page. So I'm including the link to his Wikipedia page instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Boulle
Dystopian Issues: Superior Nature of Man
Part of a Series: No sequel book, but there are plenty when it comes to the movies
Next in Series: Return to the Planet of the Apes or Rise of the Planet of the Apes movies
Age of Main Character: He is an adult
Year of Publication: 1963
Publisher: The edition I read was published by the Penguin Group Limited in 2001.
Review: This is my first review (to my knowledge) of a book that has a movie franchise connected to it. Technically, the book itself is science fiction, while the movie franchise is both dystopian and science fiction.
In my opinion, all dystopias count as science fiction but not all science fiction can be considered dystopias. Dystopias are versions of our world, our society, gone wrong. In Planet of the Apes, the novel, Ulysse and his two friends travel to Soror, another world. In that world it was perfectly normal for Apes to be the dominant species over man and so it does not technically count as a dystopia. You have to read the whole book to understand why it made my list.
There is great beauty in an intriguing, well-expressed idea and Boulle's book was so spell-binding that it inspired seven movies and a tv series. Watching the original five movies released in the late sixties and the early seventies made me wish I was alive when they came out, even though they grew progressively worse in plot structure and logical storylines. I hated Tim Burton's remake interpretation that came out in 2001, but loved The Rise of the Planet of the Apes which came out in 2011 and explained how apes grew to be verbal in the first place.
In terms of writing style, I find Boulle to be dry and philosophical. The plot moves slowly and the ending is suprising and unsatisfying. But at the same time, I couldn't stop reading because I was so enamoured by his idea. What if homosapiens are not "the kings of creation" we consider ourselves to be? If we expect to be treated with respect and dignity, then shouldn't other species expect to be treated the same way by us as well?
Sometimes the best way to understand our society is tell a story about a vastly different society and let readers draw their own parallels. Boulle, whether he intended to or not, does an excellent job of this. First by writing Planet of the Apes the book which shows us how apes would form a society like ours and how they would treat humans, and second by exploring how humans would treat apes as an increasingly sentient and verbal species through the movie series. Boulle's work can also be viewed as a commentary on the struggle for all human kind to be considered equal.
The next Planet of the Apes movie (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is set to come out in 2014. Can't wait.
Real-Life Dystopias: I love, love, love in the first and third movies when Zira explains that the medical testing the apes are doing on the humans are as wrong as humans doing medical testing on apes. Our real-life dystopia is that advancing medical science requires animal testing. Sometimes on animals that are more sentient than we always realise. When the situation is twisted around so that the apes are the scientists and the humans are the test subjects, it becomes easier to see how wrong it is. Unfortunately, at times it is a necessary evil for the sake of perfecting medical procedures and medication to save human lives.
Memorable Quotes: "Yes, I, one of the kings of creation, started circling round my beauty; I, the ultimate achievement of millenary evolution, in front of this collection of monkeys eagerly watching me, in front of an old orang-outang dictating notes to his secretary, in front of a female chimpanzee smiling with self-satisfaction, in front of a couple of chuckling gorillas; I, a man, excusing myself on the grounds of exceptional cosmic circumstances, and persuading myself for the moment that there exist more things on the planets and in the heavens than human philosophy has ever imagined; I, Ulysse Merou, embarked like a peacock round the gorgeous Nova, on the love display."
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, pg 75
"We were speaking french, for, as I have said, she was quicker to learn my language than I hers. At the outset there were some difficulties of interpretation, the words 'man' and 'monkey' not evoking the same creatures for us; but this snag was quickly smoothed out. Each time she said 'monkey,' I mentally translated 'superior being, the height of evolution.' When she spoke about me, I knew she meant bestial creatures endowed with a certain sense of imitation and presenting a few anatomical similarities to monkeys but of an embryonic psychism and devoid of the power of thought."
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, pg 83-84
"'Above all do be careful not to turn on passers-by or bare your teeth or scratch a trustful child who might come up and pet you. I don't want to muzzle you but. . . .'
She stopped short and burst out laughing.
'Forgive me, forgive me!' she cried. 'I keep forgetting you have a mind like a monkey."
- Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle, pg 89
Author Web Site: Pierre Boulle died in 1994 and does not have an official web page. So I'm including the link to his Wikipedia page instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Boulle
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle
Summary: 13 year-old Martin lives in a dome where babies are advertised on television and delivered by storks, window decals mark the changing of seasons and no one is allowed to ask questions. When Martin’s six year-old sister Cassie is recalled along with all the other kids in the dome aged six and under, Martin is the only one who seems to care. His love, loyalty, and curiosity, along with his faithful Alldog, Chip, lead him on a dangerous journey to find his sister and discover the truth behind the world he lives in.
Dystopian Issues: Totalitarian Government, Eugenics
Part of a Series: Yes
Next in Series: The Walls Have Eyes
Age of Main Character: 13
Number of Pages: 229
Year of Publication: 2008
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Review: There are so many things I love about this book.
First, the characters. Martin, a smart, caring thirteen year-old who promises his sister he will find her when she is taken away and does everything he can to keep his promise. Cassie, the extremely precocious six year-old who wants to know the why behind everything and loves her older brother deeply. And Chip, the faithful Alldog who will do anything to win Martin's affection and help him out.
I loved specific things like when Cassie is describing an updated version of Peter Pan to her family, and how Chip, as a robot contained by a jelly-like substance, has the ability to morph into pretty much whatever Martin needs and get him into secure places. I also love the part where Martin's friends hack a zombie video game to merge it with a SimCity type game and have the zombies take over the frightened Sims.
Dunkle pulls together elements from Stephen King's The Running Man (book and film versions), George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and her own unique ideas to create a world where everyone is being watched and controlled to be good consumers and sheep. Her attention to detail and love of her characters makes this book a joy to read and not depressing, even though it contains serious dystopian issues such as living with a totalitarian government and using eugenics to create the younger generations.
The Sky Inside feels like a cautionary tale about the dangers of designer babies and believing propaganda. Dunkle explores what would happen to society if babies were bred in labs with specific characteristics that are not valued by a totalitarian government. Talk about using the system to subvert the system!
Ultimately though, this book is a moving story about the bond between a brother and his sister, and his unwillingness to simply accept that her recall is the best solution. Martin isn't out to fix society, just save the people that he loves.
At the end of this book I have just one thing to say. I want to be a fourteen.
Real-Life Dystopia: I've been reading Eugenics by David Galton and am fascinated by the increasing role eugenics is playing in our society. Eugenics is used in in-vitro fertilization to ensure a fetus without a genetically inherited disease is implanted in its mother. Unfortunately, eugenics has the ability to be misused quite easily, as in the case of Nazi Germany's ideas of exterminating the Jews and in India and China where ultrasounds that determine the baby's sex often lead to the abortion of female fetuses.
Memorable Quotes: "It was the distance that fascinated him first. After a lifetime of living with a steel ceiling and a concrete floor, the vastness of the living landscape was like a drug. He stood on the top of a hill, a concept he had known before from sandbox games, but this hill was an enormous thing, and the ground fell gradually from it for a long, long way. The ground below the hill wasn't flat either. It undulated, rising in curves and falling in scoops. Off to his left, high hills like a fence seemed ready to blockade the clouds themselves."
- The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, pg 144-145
"The trees straggled down a nearby ridge and spilled into the field, like a crowd of people who had followed two or three leaders.
Martin stood in their shade, put his hands into the ribs their bark, and felt wonder deep in his heart. They were not tall and powerful like the I beans that ribbed the steel dome, but their branches swayed, and their leaves rustled in the wind. He could tell that they were alive."
- The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, pg 148
Author Web Site: http://www.claredunkle.com/
Dystopian Issues: Totalitarian Government, Eugenics
Part of a Series: Yes
Next in Series: The Walls Have Eyes
Age of Main Character: 13
Number of Pages: 229
Year of Publication: 2008
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Review: There are so many things I love about this book.
First, the characters. Martin, a smart, caring thirteen year-old who promises his sister he will find her when she is taken away and does everything he can to keep his promise. Cassie, the extremely precocious six year-old who wants to know the why behind everything and loves her older brother deeply. And Chip, the faithful Alldog who will do anything to win Martin's affection and help him out.
I loved specific things like when Cassie is describing an updated version of Peter Pan to her family, and how Chip, as a robot contained by a jelly-like substance, has the ability to morph into pretty much whatever Martin needs and get him into secure places. I also love the part where Martin's friends hack a zombie video game to merge it with a SimCity type game and have the zombies take over the frightened Sims.
Dunkle pulls together elements from Stephen King's The Running Man (book and film versions), George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and her own unique ideas to create a world where everyone is being watched and controlled to be good consumers and sheep. Her attention to detail and love of her characters makes this book a joy to read and not depressing, even though it contains serious dystopian issues such as living with a totalitarian government and using eugenics to create the younger generations.
The Sky Inside feels like a cautionary tale about the dangers of designer babies and believing propaganda. Dunkle explores what would happen to society if babies were bred in labs with specific characteristics that are not valued by a totalitarian government. Talk about using the system to subvert the system!
Ultimately though, this book is a moving story about the bond between a brother and his sister, and his unwillingness to simply accept that her recall is the best solution. Martin isn't out to fix society, just save the people that he loves.
At the end of this book I have just one thing to say. I want to be a fourteen.
Real-Life Dystopia: I've been reading Eugenics by David Galton and am fascinated by the increasing role eugenics is playing in our society. Eugenics is used in in-vitro fertilization to ensure a fetus without a genetically inherited disease is implanted in its mother. Unfortunately, eugenics has the ability to be misused quite easily, as in the case of Nazi Germany's ideas of exterminating the Jews and in India and China where ultrasounds that determine the baby's sex often lead to the abortion of female fetuses.
Memorable Quotes: "It was the distance that fascinated him first. After a lifetime of living with a steel ceiling and a concrete floor, the vastness of the living landscape was like a drug. He stood on the top of a hill, a concept he had known before from sandbox games, but this hill was an enormous thing, and the ground fell gradually from it for a long, long way. The ground below the hill wasn't flat either. It undulated, rising in curves and falling in scoops. Off to his left, high hills like a fence seemed ready to blockade the clouds themselves."
- The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, pg 144-145
"The trees straggled down a nearby ridge and spilled into the field, like a crowd of people who had followed two or three leaders.
Martin stood in their shade, put his hands into the ribs their bark, and felt wonder deep in his heart. They were not tall and powerful like the I beans that ribbed the steel dome, but their branches swayed, and their leaves rustled in the wind. He could tell that they were alive."
- The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle, pg 148
Author Web Site: http://www.claredunkle.com/
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Summary: In ninety-five days, Lena will undergo a procedure and be protected from amor deliria nervosa, the deadly disease of being in love. After witnessing this disease claim the life of her mother, Lena is eagerly looking forward to the day when she will be free from the fear of contracting it herself. Before the deadline arrives however, Lena finds herself accidentally infected by Alex, a guy she runs into in the oddest places. Now, instead of embracing the future planned for her by the powers that be, Lena begins to wonder if the disease is preferable to its cure.
Dystopian Issues: Totalitarian Government, Mind Control
Part of a Series: Yes, it is the first book in the Delirium trilogy
Next in Series: Pandemonium
Age of Main Character: 17
Number of Pages: 441
Year of Publication: 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Review: At times, I thought this book was more of a romance novel in a dystopian novel's covering. I'm not a huge fan of romance novels, and Lauren Oliver's style of writing drives me up the wall. Her 441 pages contain so many descriptive paragraphs that I found myself zoning out and having to force myself to go back and re-read paragraphs and pages I had skimmed in boredom.
Oliver's idea is intriguing though. In this version of the United States, love is considered to be a disease that needs curing. When a person reaches the age of eighteen and it is safe, they undergo a procedure that ensures they will never have to feel the symptoms and consequences of love.
Lena is seventeen years old and ninety-five days away from undergoing the procedure. Ninety-five days proves to be too long away though when she contracts the disease and starts experiencing the symptoms of love for a guy named Alex. It's a twist on Romeo & Juliet, but Oliver makes it clear that she is trying to draw a parallel between the two stories. Both are about forbidden love.
I like what Oliver is trying to do: explore what society would look like without love. But instead of being profound it comes off like Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, where the totalitarian government is using and encouraging the fear of something to perpetrate brain damage and the creation of humans that act like sheep and do not cause trouble.
Where Oliver gets my respect is in the fact that she has mixed in literature and poetry from our world, while also inventing a vast amount of literature from the world she has created. I love when authors create supplementary works for their novels because it shows how invested they are in their work and makes their creation even more interesting and believable.
Real-Life Dystopia: In Delirium, the most important choices are made for a person. Things such as who they will marry, what job they will hold, if they will receive post-secondary education - even how many children they will have. This is mirrored in our world in the cultural practice of arranged marriages, and in China where a reproductive policy of one child per couple exists. Although according to The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/25/china-one-child-policy-benefits-rules), China's policy is more nuanced than it appears to be.
Memorable Quotes: "One of the strangest things about life is that it will chug on, blind and oblivious, even as your private world - your little carved-out sphere - is twisting and morphing, even breaking apart...
And still the sun rises and clouds mass and drift and people shop for groceries and toilets flush and blinds go up and down. That's when you realise that most of it - life, the relentless mechanism of existing - isn't about you. It doesn't include you at all. It will thrust onward even after you've jumped the edge. Even after you're dead."
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver, pg 302-303
"For the first time in my life I actually feel sorry for Carol, I'm only seventeen years old, and I already know something she doesn't know: I know that life isn't life if you just float through it. I know that the whole point - the only point - is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go."
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver, pg 383
Author Web Site: http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/
Dystopian Issues: Totalitarian Government, Mind Control
Part of a Series: Yes, it is the first book in the Delirium trilogy
Next in Series: Pandemonium
Age of Main Character: 17
Number of Pages: 441
Year of Publication: 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
Review: At times, I thought this book was more of a romance novel in a dystopian novel's covering. I'm not a huge fan of romance novels, and Lauren Oliver's style of writing drives me up the wall. Her 441 pages contain so many descriptive paragraphs that I found myself zoning out and having to force myself to go back and re-read paragraphs and pages I had skimmed in boredom.
Oliver's idea is intriguing though. In this version of the United States, love is considered to be a disease that needs curing. When a person reaches the age of eighteen and it is safe, they undergo a procedure that ensures they will never have to feel the symptoms and consequences of love.
Lena is seventeen years old and ninety-five days away from undergoing the procedure. Ninety-five days proves to be too long away though when she contracts the disease and starts experiencing the symptoms of love for a guy named Alex. It's a twist on Romeo & Juliet, but Oliver makes it clear that she is trying to draw a parallel between the two stories. Both are about forbidden love.
I like what Oliver is trying to do: explore what society would look like without love. But instead of being profound it comes off like Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, where the totalitarian government is using and encouraging the fear of something to perpetrate brain damage and the creation of humans that act like sheep and do not cause trouble.
Where Oliver gets my respect is in the fact that she has mixed in literature and poetry from our world, while also inventing a vast amount of literature from the world she has created. I love when authors create supplementary works for their novels because it shows how invested they are in their work and makes their creation even more interesting and believable.
Real-Life Dystopia: In Delirium, the most important choices are made for a person. Things such as who they will marry, what job they will hold, if they will receive post-secondary education - even how many children they will have. This is mirrored in our world in the cultural practice of arranged marriages, and in China where a reproductive policy of one child per couple exists. Although according to The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/25/china-one-child-policy-benefits-rules), China's policy is more nuanced than it appears to be.
Memorable Quotes: "One of the strangest things about life is that it will chug on, blind and oblivious, even as your private world - your little carved-out sphere - is twisting and morphing, even breaking apart...
And still the sun rises and clouds mass and drift and people shop for groceries and toilets flush and blinds go up and down. That's when you realise that most of it - life, the relentless mechanism of existing - isn't about you. It doesn't include you at all. It will thrust onward even after you've jumped the edge. Even after you're dead."
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver, pg 302-303
"For the first time in my life I actually feel sorry for Carol, I'm only seventeen years old, and I already know something she doesn't know: I know that life isn't life if you just float through it. I know that the whole point - the only point - is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go."
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver, pg 383
Author Web Site: http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Summary: Elizabeth is nervous but thrilled when she escapes living with her father, step-mother and their impending spawn by getting shipped off to live with her aunt and four cousins in England. For once in her life Elizabeth, renamed Daisy by her cousins, is undeniably happy, discovering the delight and security of family that loves her and falling into a forbidden relationship with her cousin Edmond. The outbreak of war in England ends up separating Daisy from the people and places she loves so dearly, inspiring a desire to get back to her old life by any means necessary.
Dystopian Issues: War, Anorexia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Part of a Series: No
Age of Main Character: 15
Number of Pages: 194
Year of Publication: 2004
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Inc
Review: If the five little Peppers from Margaret Sidney's book Five Little Peppers and How They Grew had to deal with a war, I feel like How I Live Now is how things would have turned out for them.
Rosoff writes characters that I want to know about. Right from the start, Daisy's (Elizabeth's) voice comes out strong and clear, and I love her spark and honest perception of things. Her cousins, Piper, Edmond and Issac readily accept Daisy as their own and not only teach her how to live on a farm but how to love and be loved as well.
When it comes to writing books, authors seem to focus on different things: plot, character development, or telling a good story. A well-round author does all three. Not all authors are able to create characters that a reader cares about but Rosoff does so beautifully.
The trouble I did have came from some of the plot elements. I understood why Daisy became anorexic but I wish it had been developed more or not included at all. Yes, it was ironic that Daisy was anorexic in the middle of a war where everyone was starving anyway, but I didn't feel it really added to the plot.
As for the storyline about Daisy and Edmond falling in love and seeming to have sex like rabbits in the absence of adult supervision, yes, it was weird. Although I kind of see their relationship as a way of clinging to what they had in the face of the unknown. Would they have still fallen in love if they had received proper adult supervision and the war had never come? I don't know. In any case, Daisy's anorexia was useful in that sense because she was no longer getting her period and was therefore unable to get pregnant. Could have been a completely different story if she had no eating disorder.
War is a dystopia, and one that we deal with in real-life around the world. Here in North America we haven't been as affected by war as we were during World War II, but for people in other countries it is an ongoing reality. Rosoff is very apt at outlining what happens when the rules suddenly change and the world as you knew is overturned. For Daisy and her cousin it started with little changes that grew to be life changing as the war continued.
Rosoff is also good at showing that war has a cost. Loved ones die. People are changed by horrible things seen and experienced that will never be forgotten. And being separated from family creates longing for a simpler time when life wasn't upside-down. There is also the continuing fear that it could happen again.
This book is currently being made into a movie and I am looking forward seeing it when it comes out.
Real-Life Dystopias: Hmm..., an act of terrorism that sparked a war? How about the bombing of the Twin Towers in the United States and the subsequent "War on Terrorism?" I guess the difference between that example and How I Live Now is that the terrorists invaded England after the terrorist event and there was no invasion of America. Although I'm sure some of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq regarded the American troops as terrorists when they bombed and invaded those countries. Sometimes it's a matter of perspective, and this is only one example of terrorism and war.
Memorable Quotes: "It's a shame, starting out your first day on the planet as a murderer but there you go, I didn't have much choice at the time. Still, I could live quite happily without the labels I picked up because of it. Murderer or Poor Motherless Lamb.
Which one would you choose, the rock or the hard place?"
- How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, pg 19
Author Web Site: http://www.megrosoff.co.uk/blog/
Dystopian Issues: War, Anorexia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Part of a Series: No
Age of Main Character: 15
Number of Pages: 194
Year of Publication: 2004
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Inc
Review: If the five little Peppers from Margaret Sidney's book Five Little Peppers and How They Grew had to deal with a war, I feel like How I Live Now is how things would have turned out for them.
Rosoff writes characters that I want to know about. Right from the start, Daisy's (Elizabeth's) voice comes out strong and clear, and I love her spark and honest perception of things. Her cousins, Piper, Edmond and Issac readily accept Daisy as their own and not only teach her how to live on a farm but how to love and be loved as well.
When it comes to writing books, authors seem to focus on different things: plot, character development, or telling a good story. A well-round author does all three. Not all authors are able to create characters that a reader cares about but Rosoff does so beautifully.
The trouble I did have came from some of the plot elements. I understood why Daisy became anorexic but I wish it had been developed more or not included at all. Yes, it was ironic that Daisy was anorexic in the middle of a war where everyone was starving anyway, but I didn't feel it really added to the plot.
As for the storyline about Daisy and Edmond falling in love and seeming to have sex like rabbits in the absence of adult supervision, yes, it was weird. Although I kind of see their relationship as a way of clinging to what they had in the face of the unknown. Would they have still fallen in love if they had received proper adult supervision and the war had never come? I don't know. In any case, Daisy's anorexia was useful in that sense because she was no longer getting her period and was therefore unable to get pregnant. Could have been a completely different story if she had no eating disorder.
War is a dystopia, and one that we deal with in real-life around the world. Here in North America we haven't been as affected by war as we were during World War II, but for people in other countries it is an ongoing reality. Rosoff is very apt at outlining what happens when the rules suddenly change and the world as you knew is overturned. For Daisy and her cousin it started with little changes that grew to be life changing as the war continued.
Rosoff is also good at showing that war has a cost. Loved ones die. People are changed by horrible things seen and experienced that will never be forgotten. And being separated from family creates longing for a simpler time when life wasn't upside-down. There is also the continuing fear that it could happen again.
This book is currently being made into a movie and I am looking forward seeing it when it comes out.
Real-Life Dystopias: Hmm..., an act of terrorism that sparked a war? How about the bombing of the Twin Towers in the United States and the subsequent "War on Terrorism?" I guess the difference between that example and How I Live Now is that the terrorists invaded England after the terrorist event and there was no invasion of America. Although I'm sure some of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq regarded the American troops as terrorists when they bombed and invaded those countries. Sometimes it's a matter of perspective, and this is only one example of terrorism and war.
Memorable Quotes: "It's a shame, starting out your first day on the planet as a murderer but there you go, I didn't have much choice at the time. Still, I could live quite happily without the labels I picked up because of it. Murderer or Poor Motherless Lamb.
Which one would you choose, the rock or the hard place?"
- How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, pg 19
Author Web Site: http://www.megrosoff.co.uk/blog/
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Summary: Tally Youngblood is three months away from having her only desire fulfilled: escaping her natural Ugliness by becoming a Pretty on her sixteenth birthday. Shay, Tally's new friend, tries to convince her there is a life outside of being Pretty in a place called Smoke but Tally refuses to give up her dream. When the opportunity to become Pretty is taken away from Tally because of Shay's disappearance, she is forced to turn spy and undertake a perilous journey or face the unthinkable idea of being an Ugly forever. Little does Tally know that there are worse things than being Ugly.
Dystopian Issues: Government Control, Mind Control
Part of a Series: Yes
Next in Series: Pretties
Age of Main Character: 15 at the beginning of the book, 16 by the end
Number of Pages: 406
Year of Publication: 2005
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Review: Vapid. That is the first word that came to my head when I thought about how to describe this book. A world where a person's only ambition is to escape a brainwashed idea of ugliness is not appealing to me. Tally, the main character, believes her life will be perfect after she is turned Pretty on her sixteenth birthday. She is right, but for reasons far more sinister than she suspects.
I feel like Westerfeld is trying to make a statement about our society's focus on physical appearance but it isn't a strong one. Yes, in this book being Ugly is actually preferable to being Pretty because being Pretty is usually accompanied by a lobotomy (okay, I'm being a bit dramatic here - a brain lesion that has similar properties as a lobotomy), but Pretties aren't aware of what they are missing and are happy in a mindless kind of way.
I was left unsatisfied by a lack of explanation for how the society developed. Westerfeld's reasons of avoiding anorexia and war by having freedom of thought altered were uncompelling. Westerfeld also could have been more succinct in his execution as it felt like the story took a long time to develop - mind-numbingly slow in some parts yet a page turner in others.
I grew to like Tally more as she developed over the course of the book but I don't know if I like or care about her enough to tackle Westerfeld's sequel, "Pretties." I didn't find the depth I usually enjoy in the characters I read about in any of the people Westerfeld presents.
But if there is anything I took I away from this novel, it is that getting a society to focus solely on something as meaningless as looks sure does grant the governing body a lot of leeway to do whatever they want. It has a kind of 'smoke and mirrors,' 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain' feel to it.
Real-Life Dystopia: Any reality television show about cosmetic surgery or the Kardashian sisters.
Memorable Quotes: "History would indicate that the majority of people have always been sheep. Before the operation, there were wars and mass hatred and clearcutting. Whatever these lesions made us, it isn't a far cry from the way humanity was in the Rusty era. These days we're just a bit . . . easier to manage."
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, pg 258
"Sometimes Tally felt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a life without reconstituted noodles."
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, pg 350
Author Web Site: http://scottwesterfeld.com/
Dystopian Issues: Government Control, Mind Control
Part of a Series: Yes
Next in Series: Pretties
Age of Main Character: 15 at the beginning of the book, 16 by the end
Number of Pages: 406
Year of Publication: 2005
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Review: Vapid. That is the first word that came to my head when I thought about how to describe this book. A world where a person's only ambition is to escape a brainwashed idea of ugliness is not appealing to me. Tally, the main character, believes her life will be perfect after she is turned Pretty on her sixteenth birthday. She is right, but for reasons far more sinister than she suspects.
I feel like Westerfeld is trying to make a statement about our society's focus on physical appearance but it isn't a strong one. Yes, in this book being Ugly is actually preferable to being Pretty because being Pretty is usually accompanied by a lobotomy (okay, I'm being a bit dramatic here - a brain lesion that has similar properties as a lobotomy), but Pretties aren't aware of what they are missing and are happy in a mindless kind of way.
I was left unsatisfied by a lack of explanation for how the society developed. Westerfeld's reasons of avoiding anorexia and war by having freedom of thought altered were uncompelling. Westerfeld also could have been more succinct in his execution as it felt like the story took a long time to develop - mind-numbingly slow in some parts yet a page turner in others.
I grew to like Tally more as she developed over the course of the book but I don't know if I like or care about her enough to tackle Westerfeld's sequel, "Pretties." I didn't find the depth I usually enjoy in the characters I read about in any of the people Westerfeld presents.
But if there is anything I took I away from this novel, it is that getting a society to focus solely on something as meaningless as looks sure does grant the governing body a lot of leeway to do whatever they want. It has a kind of 'smoke and mirrors,' 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain' feel to it.
Real-Life Dystopia: Any reality television show about cosmetic surgery or the Kardashian sisters.
Memorable Quotes: "History would indicate that the majority of people have always been sheep. Before the operation, there were wars and mass hatred and clearcutting. Whatever these lesions made us, it isn't a far cry from the way humanity was in the Rusty era. These days we're just a bit . . . easier to manage."
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, pg 258
"Sometimes Tally felt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a life without reconstituted noodles."
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, pg 350
Author Web Site: http://scottwesterfeld.com/
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