Oryx and Crake

In The Handmaid's Tale, society chose to embrace religion. In Oryx and Crake, science, technology, and evolution are the focus of society. Oryx and Crake begins with Snowman as the narrator and continues to unfold with Snowman in the present and flashbacks to Jimmy and Crake as they grow from young boys into men while science continues to take leaps and bounds developmentally. New animals are created. Society promotes extreme commercialization & sex and pornography are an easily accessible commodity. (reader beware!) 


Crake is perfect for this society. He's practically a scientific prodigy. Jimmy, on the other hand, is not. He is much better at art, and there's a little bit of the Science v Art conflict present in the novel. Crake is a manipulative, cunning, and calculating man with pure intentions. Jimmy is his loving, innocent minion.  


I really enjoyed reading Oryx and Crake. It's a definite page turner, waiting to see how the two stories meet. It's great! Read on!

The Handmaid's Tale

In the very same class where Feed was required reading, we were also introduced to The Handmaid's Tale. A post-apocalyptic novel of a newly formed utopia, which only brings misery and pain, serving as a dystopia, to many liberals of the 80s, including Offred, the handmaid in the title.  In a backlash of feminism, the Republic of Gilead is formed and is based on and governed by Old Testament manner and moral. Anyone who cannot conform to the new ways or lived differently in the past is subject to punishment, exile, or death. 


In this reformed government and society, Offred, and women like her, are separated from their families and made to serve as handmaids. They loose their entire person. Even their names are changed. Offred simply means she is of Fred. As in he is her master. She is handmaid to his wife. Handmaids as in the biblical sense. As in Sariah couldn't have a baby, so she offered her handmaiden to Abraham to produce an heir. Many of the women in the new Republic of Gilead are like Sariah and too old too have babies, and many of the babies made, even by the handmaids, are sickly. Offred's job is to make a baby for Fred and his wife. And this is Offred's story.


The Handmaid's Tale is a very interesting book to read. It's crazy to see how a society can take things too far while trying to to do good. I highly recommend this book to those of ya'll who like post-apocalyptic and utopia/dystopian-style. 

Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras

I have something terrible to admit.

I judge books by their covers.

I apologize.

So when these books came out and everyone was just reading them up, I was like, "Whatever. I don't want to read some stupid clique book." Even when they were recommend to me.

I finally learned otherwise. These books are exactly up my alley. Or, at least, they started that way. I really enjoyed Uglies, and even Pretties. Specials and Extras, though, I found to be overkill. And I thought Extras was pretty lame. Plus, I'm not all that into series/sequel books where it's the same society but not the same characters. [I appreciate Lois Lowry calling Gathering Blue and The Messenger companion books.] 

Here's what happens: They live in a society where you get surgery at 16 to become pretty. But it turns out, there are people outside of the city, people who don't get the surgery. And sometimes, people from the city actually leave, they choose to not have the surgery. Tally Youngblood's friend, Shay, is one of them. And if Tally doesn't find Shay and bring her back, she'll never become pretty. Anything she chooses from this point out will drastically change her life, maybe even her world. 

So, yeah. I liked it a lot. I love this futuristic, post-apocalyptic (insofar as the Rusties, aka us, had our apocalypse and their society grew out of it), utopia/dystopia theme. I'm not sure I would recommend Extras, at least without qualifying it as my least favorite. 

But I had a few questions about their society, mostly brought about by Specials, which felt a little bit like plot holes to me, but maybe I'm the only one. 

• It surprises me that they still have their own birthdays. . . Okay, that wasn't a question. It just seems odd to me, in a society where the stress is on sameness without actually ever saying so. So why  do they let them have their own? Also, I guess this one isn't really a plot hole. But it's still my question! 
• Do they, the government, still let people give birth? Doesn't that seem contrary to being pretty? Do they have to have another surgery after giving birth? After every birth?
• Do littlies live with their parents? And why/how does the government trust middle pretties/crumblies to raise their children to twelve? 
• What are crumblies? But wikipedia answered this for me: crumblies are generally parents, any middle or late pretties can be referred to as crumblies.
• What's up with the Tally-wa and Shay-la thing? I get that they're nicknames, but I just kept wondering if they had significance, and it seems like they gave the -la to everyone, so what's the point if everyone has one? And why is on Tally a -wa? 
• I guess the only really plot-holey one is society as a whole, how it runs. Is their still a family unit? Why does the government even allow there to be all the people they need to take care of? Like, what is the point? And if the government is in control . . .    I just don't get it. And where does the money come from? How does everything run and maintain? I just feel like I wasn't given enough information about how the society works as a whole, outside of what it's like to be a teenager ugly or new pretty. Wikipedia explains this, sort of, but it's not the same as if it's in the book. It's not as prove-able.
• I also wanted to know the deal with David and Tally, in the end, you know?  

So, read the books. Answer my questions. And keep reading! 

Crossed

Last weekend, Cass and I read Ally Condie's Crossed, a sequel to Matched, and my worst fears came true. . . Ally Condie is a Stephanie Meyers. Okay, that was rude. She's not that bad. But my fears of Crossed turning into more of a Twilight than a Hunger Games came true for sure.


Problems:
1. The novel lacks voice -- esp because I read this in-between/at the same time as The Help and Sing You Home [reviews coming soon!] which were also told from different perspectives and done much better.


2. Condie says "says" too much. I know she doesn't want to be all "he exclaimed" & "she gasped" all over the page-- but just cut it out. Just dialogue it. "Blah." Enter. Indent. "Talk-ity-talk." Enter. Indent. Carry on. In all fairness, I may have noticed this one more because I was reading it aloud to Cass. I didn't notice it as much while reading silently. 


3. I'm not sure any of my questions were even answered, other than Ky's back-story. But I guess that's why there is a third book . . .


4. I still do not like Ky. He still just creeps me out.


Overall, meh. I'll still read the third when it comes out, but it's just not my type of book. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about guilty pleasure teen books. This one just isn't for me. I think I'll go read The Giver now. 

Matched

Slated as a cross between Twilight and Hunger Games, I was surprised when Cass brought this home from the library. He read Matched first, said it was clear that Ally Condie is from Utah, and it was reminiscent of The Giver and, despite similarities, he liked it better than Twilight. 

So I read it. It does start out very Giver-esque, with the banquets and the ceremonies. In this society they have the ability to predict everything. They predict who will be your best match. How you will react in a given situation. The figure out what your caloric intake should be and provide appropriate meals. They assign your job, tell you where to live. Tell you when to have children, when to stop having children. And when to die. They have exacted what makes the optimal life and are providing it for their society. Yet there is a mix up at the Matching, and Cassia has been given two matches -- one a mistake, he's an aberration and disallowed to be matched, Ky, and one a childhood friend, a best friend, Xander. See the Twilight similarities? Guess which boy she chooses?? And of course, I like the other one.

So that bothered me. I liked parts of it. I like the idea even though it's not super original. She's also been signed by Disney I guess. She's definitely writing to her target audience -- Twilight -- and it's a little predictable, but I just can't get over the boy problem. I think Ky is a creeper. But there are a lot of occasions where I find boys to be creepers in media and I'm the only one. Overall, I did like this book. And I will read the next one, I'm sure, when Cass brings it home from the library in a month or two. And maybe I won't hate the ending. Hopefully it solves some of the mysteries Condie has laid out for us in the first book and doesn't turn into a ridiculous teenage love story with the cover of having more to it. Because this book, the series I'm sure, is ultimately about free will, agency, the power to choose. It's much deeper than Twilight, and I really hope Condie doesn't sell out just for numbers. Quality over Quantity, right? Please?

The Diamond of Darkhold

The fourth and final installment of DuProu's Ember series, I felt The Diamond of Darkhold fell just a teeny bit short. Everything had a nice happy ending, including an awkwardly told, unchronological almost-epilogue. It vaguely had a tie in with Prophet of Yonwood summarized in one sentence. And everything was just so easy. She really could have stopped at People of Sparks, yet she still leaves this open for continuation.

Those minor complaints aside, I enjoyed this book. It was a nice denouement for the series, yet wasn't quite as thrilling as the others. Parts of it were clever and unpredictable, and it was rather enjoyable. What I really would like to read is about the first people to go to Ember, which would tie in Prophet of Yonwood much better in my opinion. As a series, I'm not sure this one is a winner. I don't feel my time was wasted, but there are other YA authors in this vein (Haddix, Lowry) who I would suggest first.

The People of Sparks

The sequel to The City of Ember , The People of Sparks begins feeling a little big like Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. The ground is dry and dusty, the people are unfamiliar. And then we continue with the story of the "Emberites", who, having left Ember, eventually stumble upon the city of Sparks. Sparks takes them in, offering to help them for six months. What they do not tell them, is that in six months it will be winter. The Emberites will be forced to leave, homeless and foodless. 

Things begin well enough for a city doubled in size and not resource. But tensions continue to grow, and an Emberite named Tick is the most unhappy and wants to fight. Doon tries to be the peacemaker, but he is accused of throwing tomatoes, a huge offense for those already short on food. And Lina, our hero, has disappeared with a Roamer, headed for the ruins of an old city. 

The conflict continues and war between Sparks and Ember seems inevitable! Tune in for the exciting ending next week! Or read the book yourself :) 

I enjoyed this book and really recommend it -- especially for those into YA novels and the YA crowd themselves!