(I got a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
I had planned on reading Across the Universe ages ago, yet never got t(I got a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
I had planned on reading Across the Universe ages ago, yet never got to it. Instead, I got to this one—which, from what I understand, very loosely alludes to the former. I can confirm, in any case, that not having read Beth Revis's trilogy won't be a problem here: the present novel is a standalone, and previous knowledge isn't mandatory to follow its plot. Although I guess that, like me, you'll miss a few Easter Eggs.
The story follows Ella, a girl from Malta, who struggles daily to come to terms with how sick her mother is, struck with a degenerative disease for which there is no cure. The only "cure" so far has been developed by Ella's father; unfortunately, his death put a stop to any improvement in that regard. As a way of relieving some of her pain, Ella's mother (a scientist as well) has created the Reverie, a system that allows people to relive their best, happiest memories in a dream-like state. But what's been used so far as a recreational machine only has the potential to be so much more, especially after Ella realises she can link to a "dreamer", and enter his/her Reverie to spy on and/or manipulate it.
We're given to see the world through Ella's prism, which is at times a narrow one, focused, as mentioned above, on what's left of her family, and also her best friend Akilah (when they manage to communicate with each other, because the other girl is currently serving in the army). Information and world-building are thus done little by little; it's a method I tend to prefer to large info-dumps, so depending on a reader's preferences here, it may be a very good thing, or a problem. What I can say: I didn't feel it difficult to get the bigger idea, even though there were moments I would have want to learn just a little more about the rest of the world, most specificically the "secessionist", possibly "terrorism-infested" countries. This aspect made the novel feel like your average YA dystopia, but somewhat seemed both exploited and left on the side of the road at the same time.
I found Ella's quest in general interesting, raising many questions regarding who you can trust, how can you be sure you can trust them, who is who, whether conscience resides in the brain or in the body or is yet something even more impossible to grasp. There were a few nice twists in the book about that. I just regretted the scientific aspect behind those, behind the technologies developed, wasn't given more of an explanation—I'm not particularly a hardcore fan of hard-science SF, but I like having a little more meat on the bones, so to speak.
Another good thing about Ella: she wasn't the average girl-falls-for-boy YA heroine. When an unknown, handsome but somehow dangerous-looking guy grasps her wrist to "warn" her about something, she doesn't fall for his looks, she doesn't immediately trust him: no, she punches him, which is a reaction far healthier than a lot of crap I've read in novels with similar characters. She looks for him for answers, but she does so knowing she may have to betray him afterwards; she's ready to use him, not because she's deeply manipulative, but because she's wary, and aware that if she doesn't do it, she might fall into a trap. After all, she doesn't know him, while he keeps claiming the contrary: isn't that fishy? Those reactions don't necessarily make for a very likeable character at first, but they seemed to me definitely more believable than girl-falls-in-love-in-five-minutes. (Also there are tinges of insta-love, but they make sense... only explaining why would mean revealing too much.)
About the writing: the author delivers compelling chapters, and avoids the typical pit traps of weird metaphors (I've seen my share of those in YA lately...) and purple prose. This works pretty well in a no-nonsense way, and fits with the science fiction aspect.
The last chapters play a little too much on convenient happenings, which spoilt a little my enjoyment of the book. But overall, while not exceptional, I liked it. I'd deem it a 3.5*....more
(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
I've debated again and again, whether I should give this book 1* or 2, so let's(I got a copy courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)
I've debated again and again, whether I should give this book 1* or 2, so let's say it's a 1.5. I wouldn't deem it as bad per se. In fact, it dealt with themes I'm usually fascinated with: parallel worlds, and manipulating the very fabric of reality. But it was just so long. It felt so long. It felt as if it picked up by the 75% mark, which was too late to muster much interest in me, and I'll be honest: if I hadn't got it through NetGalley, if I hadn't considered myself as owing it a review (and a full read), I would havd stopped reading it days ago.
I loved the beginning: that scene in the plane, one set of people dying while another replaced them—raising from the start the question of "who is real?" Can we call people from Mara's world "the real versions", or are their "dopplegängers" just as real? It's all in the eye of the beholder, and one soon comes to realise that things aren't so easy. It's not simply about sending people back to their original realms. It's not only about the poor ones who died and were replaced by "evil" counterparts, because while some of those counterparts were indeed rotten, others were pretty decent people. And that's the key word: people. In that regard, you can't read this book with an all-or-nothing approach.
Unfortunately, the characters and the way they made their way through the story seemed off balance to me. There was a lot of talking, of explaining, something that was partly unavoidable (considering the theories behind the various worlds and how to affect them), but too often I caught myself thinking that the characters took their sweet time getting to actually tackling the problems. Again, I guess it was logical, in a way (for instance, convincing Mara of her powers in a snap of fingers would have been just... bad); only it happened in ways that made the story drag.
Maybe the premise of "every single passenger survived vs. every single passenger died", something that really grabbed me in the blurb, would have deserved more spotlight (as it was, the ones who should have cared packed up the investigation pretty quickly—and I'm talking of several people here, not just a certain person). Maybe the plot would have called for more action on the main characters' part (all the scenes at the repair shop didn't strike me as particularly useful, and I suppose they contributed in dragging things down). At this point, it's hard to tell, becaue everything's got muddled in my head. I never found enough interest to read more than a few chapters at once, despite somewhat wanting to know where the plot was going.
There are intriguing things in this novel. Alas, I just couldn't remain interested for very long, nor invested in the characters and their relationships....more
[I got a copy from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]
I quite liked this novel, though I must admit I didn't enjoy it [I got a copy from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]
I quite liked this novel, though I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected.
The Basement setting and situation were intriguing, and I found the story as a whole pervaded with a feeling of oppression. It was more an impression than definite proof, but I had the nagging feeling that everyone was always being watched by someone else. Maybe because of the Feeds, maybe because Cipher remained aware that she had to watch her back at all times, and acknowledged that as soon as she'd let her guard down, it'd be the end. (And I agree she was right in thinking so!)
Cipher was a likeable character, one who was aware of the problems she was in, yet tried to keep fighting, even if it meant lying low for a while. She wasn't a whiner, she kept focused on what she wanted and hoped for, and she knew how to put her coding and engineering skills to use in order to build a few backdoors. She only allowed herself to trust a handful of people, and wasn't fooled by the shiny varnish and empty promises of the Municipality. While there were hints of a potential romance too (perhaps even a triangle), she kept her priorities straight and never let herself be engulfed into that, the way too many characters unfortunately seem to do as soon as a love interest appears. Love was an important motivator for her; however, it was 'love' in a wider sense, encompassing friendship and wanting to protect the few people she held dear—not the old-as-sin trope of True Love At First Sight Forever for a boy she had just met. And she remained 'faithful' to the Basement people, to her father, even to her sisters, in that she mourned them like the people they had been, and didn't forget about them as soon as she was out, nor no matter how dire her own circumstances.
I also liked the siblings: Oona for her entusiasm for gardening and living things, in a world so devoid of positive life and new births; and Bowen for being overall sympathetic, understanding, and ready to take calculated risks to get the truth out.
A few things bothered me nevertheless. I expected Tor to be more... impressive when it came to planning, and the same went for Sally (deemed quite the strategist, after all). Some things are explained later when it comes to Tor, but I thought his mother wasn't so foreseeing, and it seemed a little jarring. (Minor quibble about Tor: his way of calling Cipher 'love'. It's probably just me, but I can't stand that, just like I can't stand 'babe'.) I wondered about a couple of inconsistencies, too: for instance, how come Cipher didn't remember Tor from the Basement, when she was only two years younger, and she said she knew everybody there? She was rather young at the time, yet since she remembered classes she took when she was 4-5, I would've thought she would remember him as well?
At times, Cipher's thoughts also intruded too much on the narrative. They weren't useless, and contained important information, so they weren't a problem in themselves; only they tended to interrupt the flow, and made me wonder if they wouldn't have been better included elsewhere.
I wished Bowen and Oona had been given more importance, probably because of The Truth (the unauthorised Feed they broadcast in the beginning): the latter looked like a useful tool, able to ignite a lot of things, yet it just went away, and the siblings became more and more like 'people to protect', and not 'people who mattered thanks to their actions'. (Perhaps I also slightly resented how Oona was important due to (view spoiler)[her pregnancy (hide spoiler)]; it made sense within the context of that specific world, but I tend to find such things annoying. As a woman, I'm not at ease with the idea that what makes me important is (view spoiler)[my ability to have children (hide spoiler)]; I want to believe we're much more than that. This is however a very personal observation, and I doubt it'll be a problem for every reader.)
In general, I liked this novel, and if there were to be a next installment—the ending kind of begs for one, especially now that (view spoiler)[Metis (hide spoiler)] has appeared—I'd probably want to read it. I just can't push myself to give it more than 3 stars....more
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