Bookish Thoughts

I will start this by saying that when you name your two protagonists Lizzie and Darcy, you create certain expectations. Even if one of them is a character in a book written by the other one. But especially when one is revealed to be bisexual early on and the other one is, as I said, her creation. And especially when the book is billed as a paranormal romance. So this wasn't the book I was expecting or hoping it would be. Darcy is an eighteen year old who miraculously sells her first novel as part of a two-book deal and moves to NYC for a year to work on revisions, write her second book, and figure out if she can make it as an author. Lizzie is the protagonist of her book, a high school kid who discovers that she's a psycho pomp and falls in love with the God of Death. Sadly, their worlds never cross. This is basically two books, told in alternating chapters. And while the events of the "real world" inform the shape of Darcy's novel to some extent, there's ...

I have to admit that the conclusion to this trilogy felt a little flat to me. There were definitely some good things, and I still think the series as a whole is good and tackles interesting questions with some good nuance. I even liked the actual ending of the story. But so much of this book felt like a rehash of the second one that I felt a little bored by the end of it. Once again, Tally has had her brain rewired, and once again she sets out into the wilderness where he solitude helps her figure out what she actually wants. The love triangle sort of fizzles out and the stakes are revealed to be not nearly as high as it seemed. What felt like a worldwide conspiracy is mostly confined to one city, and Tally's role shifts. She does help save the world, but it's more about preventing a war than ushering a grand revolution. Which isn't to say that the revolution doesn't happen. But it's not the complete overthrow of society that the rebels wanted. And that's pr...

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....

I was surprised by how compelling how found this book, and by how much I liked the main character, Tally. It's possible that this is because I entered into this book with reduced expectations, after a decent break from YA dystopia. This isn't one of the greats of the genre, but it is a solid book (and hopefully series) with a more nuanced view of the world than you often find. Uglies  takes place in a future where everyone undergoes plastic surgery at the age of sixteen to make them "pretty". Really the goal is to make everyone look more or less the same in an effort to stamp out prejudice and create a more equitable society. But Tally doesn't know that. She just knows that she's that last of her friends to undergo the operation, being the youngest, and she can't wait to join them in adulthood. But then she meets Shay, who shares her birthday and isn't at all sure that she wants to undergo the operation. She starts talking about a group of people w...