Tag Archives: YA

Review | Boy Nobody, Allen Zadoff

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14740626Allen Zadoff takes the teen-on-a-mission trope to a whole new level in Boy Nobody. The title character is an assassin who works for a mysterious agency. A teenage boy without a past, he is able to slip into the school system, strike a casual friendship with the son or daughter of the target, make the kill and then disappear before anyone connects him to the death. Things get complicated when he falls in love with the daughter of his next target, the mayor of New York City. To make matters worse, he’s been having flashbacks of his life before he became Boy Nobody, which hint that he may have been a victim himself once, and that his current life was forced on him against his will.

Boy Nobody is an action-packed YA thriller and a quick, exciting read. I didn’t expect to like the romance, particularly when I started liking how badass Boy Nobody was as an assassin. But I like Sam — she’s smart and sharp, and able to see through Boy Nobody’s veneer. She calls him out when he’s lying or not standing up for a bullying victim, but she isn’t over the top acerbic either, nor is she by any means perfect. While part of me did wish he would just fulfill his mission already and set to work learning about his own past, another part of me understood why he kept hesitating, and why he began wondering about his orders in general in the first place.

This is the first book in the series, and I can just imagine how exciting the next books will be, as Boy Nobody delves ever deeper into his past and into the organization that sends him on missions. In the meantime, this first book is an exciting ride, a more action-packed, less introspective version of Barry Lyga’s Game series. I particularly love how the romance plays out — the turn it takes is unexpected and, I think, a brave and necessary move. If it were the 90s, I’d say this series would make the perfect TV show. I don’t know if there’s a market for this type of show these days, but as a book series at least, it’s a fantastic read, and I look forward to the rest of the series.

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Thank you to HBG Canada for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review | Red Rising, Pierce Brown

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9780345539786Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest class in the colour-coded society of the future. Part of a human colony in Mars, he and his fellow Reds work to make the surface of Mars habitable for future generations. Except it turns out, the surface of Mars has been habitable for some time, and a different class of humans — the Golds — have been living in luxury thanks to the work of the Reds and other colours within society. When a personal tragedy opens Darrow’s eyes to the truth, he undergoes a painful physical transformation to become a Gold and infiltrate the highest echelons of society in order to destroy it from within.

As with any dystopia published within the last few years, Pierce Brown’s Red Rising has been compared to The Hunger Games, and Darrow to Katniss Everdeen. There are certainly similarities — unjust society, hot temper, heroism and sacrifice, etc. However, Red Rising isn’t quite as concerned as The Hunger Games with youth and the loss of innocence. Perhaps it’s because Darrow, like most teenagers in his society, is already married. Or perhaps it’s because we meet Darrow in the middle of a work day, practically indistinguishable from the adults he works with — unlike Katniss, who is forced to hunt so her family will survive, Darrow fulfills an accepted role in his society as a breadwinner for his family. Distinguishing this as well from other YA dystopias, the story actually feels more adult than young adult until the second half, when Darrow goes undercover in a training institute for Golds and the book reverts to familiar YA dystopia territory.

Red Rising is an exciting, action-packed science fiction thriller. Reds and other colours are kept subjugated so that the ruling class can maintain their supremacy. This is clearly wrong, and a rebellion has begun. But first, Darrow must face the Gold training system, which turns out to be horrifically brutal (like, Hunger Games-level brutal), to the point that it strains credibility that society would allow such a ruthless system to continue for their children. Within this training system, murder, rape and Lannister-level scheming are all par for the course, in the quest to be top of the class. Imagine the Hunger Games, but every one is a career. There is a girl, of course, whose loyalty is called to question, and a best friend, from whom Darrow is hiding a horrible secret. It’s brutal, it’s intense, and Brown never lets up the pace. To Brown’s credit, his world building is so masterful that it actually does end up being believable, and like Darrow, even the reader may soon forget his larger mission and the world around this training centre.

Still, the story is at its best when it deals with the machinations beyond the arena. There are some moments of nuance that give power to a more complex story — for example, when Darrow undergoes physical transformations to become a Gold, he is uncomfortably aware of how much these transformations are improvements. In terms of many physical aspects, Golds actually are superior to Reds, and while that is likely the result of conditioning and environment affecting evolution, it’s an uncomfortable observation for the author to make, and a bold one that reveals potentially much more serious effects of racial or class based segregation.

Darrow’s battle to make top of his class in Gold society and the innovation of his strategy foreshadow the eventual resolution of the larger conflict in his society. Red Rising is a promising start to what could be a powerful trilogy; one just can’t help but be impatient for the training to be over, and the actual rebellion to begin. It’s a trilogy custom-made for the screen — non-stop action, non-stop thrills, very little time for contemplation. Yet the seeds for a deeper story are there, and I at least can’t wait to see how the story progresses beyond the arena.

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Thank you to Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Review | The Oathbreaker’s Shadow, Amy McCulloch

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13643064In a market saturated with YA dystopians, Amy McCulloch’s The Oathbreaker’s Shadow stands out by turning to the past. Not necessarily a historical past, but rather a classical take on story telling. McCulloch’s style of world building is reminiscent of Lois Lowry’s in The Giver in a setting reminiscent of Frank Herbert’s in Dune, and while Oathbreaker’s Shadow is less allegorical than The Giver and so far less epic than Dune, it contains that vital sense of classicism that I hope will make this series endure for generations to come.

In this book, promises are represented by knots and bound by magic. When someone breaks a promise, their knot disappears and leaves behind a scar that marks them as an oathbreaker and leads to public shame and exile. For Raim, he has had a knot since the day he was born, which represents a promise he does not know and cannot possibly have made himself. So when he vows lifelong fealty to his best friend and his society’s future Khan, and this knot is broken, Raim sets off on a quest to discover what promise he had inadvertently broken, and more importantly, to reclaim his lost honour.

I cannot say enough good things about this book, and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good tale. McCulloch weaves Eastern philosophy, magic, and social and political conflict into the classic quest narrative of the disgraced hero. It’s a tradition that stretches back to ancient literature, and Oathbreaker’s Shadow serves as a testament to the enduring appeal of the classics as well as rejuvenates the form with a contemporary feel. This is an exciting new take on fantasy, and a much needed breath of fresh air in a market too enamoured with trends. Oathbreaker’s Shadow is high adventure; friendships are strained, loyalties are betrayed, and hope arises in the most unlikely place. All this occurs in a world where magic is real, and literally burned into your skin, or embodied in a shadowy form.

As with all good examples of fantasy literature, this book feels emotionally real. Oathbreakers are haunted by shadows of people they’ve betrayed; the more egregious the betrayal, the stronger one’s shadow is. It’s a compelling metaphor, and one can only imagine how it must feel to have a shadow of a loved one (literally, a shadow of them, a mere shade of their personality) as a constant reminder of your betrayal. When one character’s hunger for knowledge leads to a realization on how to use this magic to their advantage, the results are horrifying. A scene near the end revealing the extent of one character’s betrayal feels painfully real, and despite its personal nature, feels akin to epic tropes.

The Oathbreaker’s Shadow is a brilliant book, the first in a series of two. It deserves to become part of classic YA literature, and I highly recommend it to readers of all ages.

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Thank you to Random House of Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.