This is the kind of book that I usually don't check out, because though I'm as attracted to the whole futuristic dystopian totalitarian state thing, they generally tend to not live up to my expectations. I guess I just expect a lot from my futuristic dystopias? Also, I have a prejudice against male authors, which I know is ridiculous because at least half of my favorite YA novels were written by men, but for some reason I consider them to be the exception, rather than the rule. My feeling is that generally when men write YA novels it is with a specific idea in mind: they're either writing THIS story, or for THIS audience, or to get THIS final idea across, and they don't let their books be anything other than exactly what they meant them to be. Does that make any kind of sense? It just seems like say a fantasy novel written by a man for a 12 year old audience is going to be A Fantasy Novel For 12 Year Olds, whereas when, say, Shannon Hale writes a fantasy for 12 year olds, she does it in such a way that really it works for all audiences and I end up sending it to my 12 year old cousins and my 75 year old grandma.
Anyway, I'm sure that someday I will see the light and get over my little sexist prejudice. But, for now, it stands!
So, The Silenced. Marena is a teenager in a futuristic vision of the United States which is all totalitarian and awful. Her mom was a journalist when the regime took over and got' disappeared,' so Marena's got some civil disobedience simmering. She and her two friends from the prison/school eventually form an anti-establishment little gang and sort of vandalize and spread leaflets.
So, yeah, pretty good book. I ended up skimming a lot of it especially toward the end, because my friend DeVita is a bit of a slow, wordy guy, and when it's supposed to be intense and heart pumping, let's be intense and heart pumping! The interesting thing though was the afterword, in which the author explained that he wrote this book as a tribute to Sophie Scholl and her gang of anti-Nazi leafleteers from like 1942 in...Munich? I think? Anyway, this is what I'm talking about: Sophie Scholl= awesome, great story, great idea, but I feel like in the end this book was limited by it. DeVita wanted to retell Sophie Scholl, so he did. Bam. There you go. Suddenly it made sense why all of these relationships between characters that I felt like should go somewhere or develop somehow, didn't. Because that was not the point the author was going for. So, too bad. And really, it is too bad, because with a little more heart and humanity, and maybe some room for spontaneity, this book would have been pretty fantastic.
We've talked about this sexist mindset you have towards male YA authors. I still don't know how I feel. Like, yeah, sometimes it's true--but I wouldn't let that stop me from reading a book by a male author. So I'm glad you read this one, even though it proved you right in this case.
ReplyDeleteSo today I had a minute when I needed to not be in PH at school. So I read all your posts. Now I am going to go get a new library card because I can't afford to just go buy all these books. I am excited. Keep reading and writing. Or just write a story that I can read that will be like Hunger Games. Aaugh. I want to get to read that again for the first time! Katy. You need to write for newspapers or something. Oh, yeah. You write for the internet! Too bad they don't pay you.
ReplyDeleteStayed up until 1am reading the Katherine book. Like it alot. too bad he can't spell it right. :)
ReplyDeleteKaty, you have read so many books since March 4th, it's not even funny. BLOG THEM.
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