Pretties
At this point, I think I'd consider this series better than The Hunger Games. I'm finding Tally to be a much more interesting protagonist than Katniss. Rather than let herself be made a pawn by whoever wants to play, she questions everything. She's not really on anyone's side, and that's because she's aware that everything is much more complicated than either side would like to believe.
On the one hand, you have the evil government. And they are evil, there's no mistaking that. They lobotomize everyone on their sixteenth birthdays to keep the population happy and compliant. They maintain a population of primitive humans with a never-ending blood feud so they can study human violence. They've removed choice from everyone except a select few and they'll do everything in their power to maintain this status quo. But they have managed to stabilize the environment and control human population growth.
The rebels, of course, are nominally the good guys. They're all about free will. They're also incredibly short-sighted, unable to see past the current battle. They quickly fall into old habits of violence and destruction, and from the beginning Tally isn't so sure that their plans for the future are very well thought out.
And so in this book, Tally takes on the role of trickster god. She's of the city, sure, and benefits from all the privilege inherent in that. But she's not really on anyone's side except her own. She wants the world to be different, she certainly agrees that everyone ought to have free will and the lobotomies should stop. But since the rebels aren't slowing down and thinking about the consequences, she never entirely joins their side either. She comes off as selfish, especially to some of her friends, but I thought it was refreshing to have her stay staunchly on her own side.
The thing that knocked this book back for me was the language. Which is mostly really great. Westerfeld is very deliberate in his language choices - keeping the vocabulary small when Tally and her friends are freshly lobotomized and slowly expanding it as Tally re-learns to think for herself. It reminded me of the doublespeak in 1984, which was a neat reference. Because of that deliberation, it was shocking and disappointing that Westerfeld twice used the r word as a synonym for stupid. It would have been so easy to make a different word choice there, and there was no real reason to use that word specifically or any later commentary on it.
Still, a strong showing in a solid YA series.
On the one hand, you have the evil government. And they are evil, there's no mistaking that. They lobotomize everyone on their sixteenth birthdays to keep the population happy and compliant. They maintain a population of primitive humans with a never-ending blood feud so they can study human violence. They've removed choice from everyone except a select few and they'll do everything in their power to maintain this status quo. But they have managed to stabilize the environment and control human population growth.
The rebels, of course, are nominally the good guys. They're all about free will. They're also incredibly short-sighted, unable to see past the current battle. They quickly fall into old habits of violence and destruction, and from the beginning Tally isn't so sure that their plans for the future are very well thought out.
And so in this book, Tally takes on the role of trickster god. She's of the city, sure, and benefits from all the privilege inherent in that. But she's not really on anyone's side except her own. She wants the world to be different, she certainly agrees that everyone ought to have free will and the lobotomies should stop. But since the rebels aren't slowing down and thinking about the consequences, she never entirely joins their side either. She comes off as selfish, especially to some of her friends, but I thought it was refreshing to have her stay staunchly on her own side.
The thing that knocked this book back for me was the language. Which is mostly really great. Westerfeld is very deliberate in his language choices - keeping the vocabulary small when Tally and her friends are freshly lobotomized and slowly expanding it as Tally re-learns to think for herself. It reminded me of the doublespeak in 1984, which was a neat reference. Because of that deliberation, it was shocking and disappointing that Westerfeld twice used the r word as a synonym for stupid. It would have been so easy to make a different word choice there, and there was no real reason to use that word specifically or any later commentary on it.
Still, a strong showing in a solid YA series.
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