Book Review: Jane, Unlimited

Title: Jane Unlimited

Author: Kristin Cashore 

Genre: teen, time(ish) travel, mystery

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars (did not finish at 54% read) 

DNF @ 52% 

This is very disappointing to me. Kristin Cashore's Graceling series is one of my absolute favourite teen fantasy series ever!! I recommend it and buy it for people constantly. 

So when Cashore announced Jane, Unlimited I was (I'll be honest) a bit disappointed it was a contemporary but then learned it had some sort of time fluctuation in it. So I was intrigued. Yet here I am giving up on it (and I tried for two weeks to keep at it, which in my reading world is forever). Now my favourite genres are fantasy, science fiction and historical fiction. So the time wonkiness is not new to me and as a Whovian I embrace lots of anomalies and oddness. Just want to put out there that the time aspect is not at all why I disliked this book. 

Let's talk a bit about why:

Characters

As always Cashore has created interesting, quirky and memorable characters. I have no complaints in this department. Well except that maybe there isn't enough about the friend who takes her to the odd mansion for a gala. But otherwise no complaints. I also foresee a lot of people adding Ravi to their book boyfriend list and a character that charming is never a bad thing right? 😉

Plot

Interestingly my biggest complaint here is that it's a bit too haphazard. There is no real indicator when the timeline has shifted. You have to just figure that out as you read. While I get that this is intentionally like this to confuse the reader and put them in a certain mindset I just found it irritating overall. 

Otherwise there's a lot of plot. Between the gala planning, art theft, weird family dynamics, suspicious servants, etc there's lots of variety to keep you interested. 

Why I Gave Up

I know it's confusing after my above comments to figure out why I gave up on Jane, Unlimited. So here's the thing: 

1. Our main gal is annoying. Instead of feeling sympathy when I should have (with the exception of the first few pages) I was just annoyed by her. 
2. The lead gal never seems to wonder or be concerned about what happens AFTER the gala and she presumably goes back to her destitute life. This would be a HUGE concern for me personally were I in her shoes. 
3. The largest annoyance by far: there is no logical reason for why our MC is even there!! At no point could I ever figure out why she was invited to the mansion, takes everything she owns with her, doesn't get super uncomfortable and just hide 90% of the time after having breakfast with a bunch of strangers, or not being seriously concerned that her room is far away from her (supposed) friends and why her friend who invited her is never around and leaves Jane to fend for herself. And the response of her Aunt telling her to go to the mansion if ever invited is an okay reason for Jane to have accepted the invitation it still doesn't explain why this semi-not seen in forever friend invited her. 
4. It was just boring. I think it might have been our main gal, but I'm not sure. All I can say is that I have no interest in finding out who did what, why or when. The mystery is so abstract because (with a shifting timeline) there is an infinite number of possibilities available to solve any and all mysteries. This is not interesting to me at all. 
5. Finally there is no understanding or even much focus on the time situation (as in how and why it's happening), or even an attempt for our MC to figure out what is happening. Maybe in ten more pages after I stopped that started but I didn't see it going there. And again at the point I stopped just didn't care. 

Overall

So thanks for those that read through my somewhat long list of reasons. If you didn't read it, to sum it all up: I just didn't care. 

I will still read Cashore in the future and this doesn't change my opinion of Graceling series at all. 

But I do hope the next book is a little less like Jane, Unlimited and a little more like Graceling and it's companion novels. 

As it's mid-January 2018 while I write this I'm hoping this remains my most disappointing read of the year; because I can't currently imagine being this more disappointed than I currently am.

PS: if you want to read a good time travel book, albeit not a teen book, read Dark Matter. It's brilliant, Michael Crichton-esque and a rollicking, fun and fast-paced read.

Book Review: Exodus

Title: Exodus

Author: Julie Bertagna
Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult, Teen
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Exodus tells a unique, interesting and compelling story. However it is a story that should be told in 2-3 books ~200 pages each, instead of the 368 pages it is. 

The Premise 
We are taken to a time on Earth when the ice caps have melted and much of the Earth is under water. To a small community in what was once England/Stonehenge who are looking ground to the ocean every year. This portion of the story is very well developed and gives us a solid base for our main gal to develop her character and cleverness. 
From here we travel to one of the 'sky cities' that are a marvel of engineering built way up above the ocean. But of course, as is always the case with dystopian fiction, there is not enough room for everyone and so any newcomers are condemed to remain outside of the seawall that protects this sky city. 
I won't go into details after this as that would ruin the progression of the story. But at one point our lead gal meets with Treenesters (who are easily my favourite of all the group she meets). This group of people has so much literary potential to work with and Julie Bertagna only barely taps into it. I could easily have read a whole book about this group, it's challenges, beliefs and construct.

Really a story outline 
With the exception of the opening few chapters on the small island and the occasional chapter throughout Exodus feels like a story outline that deserves, if not begs, for more to be revealed about it. Bertagna has all these wonderous characters in extreme situations and instead of really looking at those characters and their way of life she rushes us through a (albeit interesting) dystopian plot that at times feels so convenient you'd think you bought the resolutions at a convenience store. This is a sign of under developed writing. Authors should be able to make you feel like the characters survived because they deserved to, or made that future happen; not just because someone opened a door at the perfect time. 

I'd definitely read Julie Bertagna again in the future as I think she has lot of potential as a writer. Unfortunately Exodus just is rushed and doesn't do justice to the elaborate and interesting world she has built. 

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Book Review: Scythe

Title: Scythe
Author: Neal Shusterman
Genre: Teen, dystopia, fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars! 

For the last 10 days I have been trying to come up with a review for this brilliant book. Neal Shusterman has blown me away. Scythe has moved to my favourites list in one read and left me wanting to re-read it again and again. 
This is difficult to review because there are so many amazing things about this book. Original plot, relatable characters, a topic of fear & death that you can't help but be intrigued by. I believe even the most upbeat person would find something in Scythe to appreciate even though it's primary topic is seemingly death. 

When death becomes necessary
So what if death became a non-factor? Or at least a 1% factor that you could ignore 99% of the time. Shusterman puts us into a world that has no natural death, no accidental death, no disease, famine or need of any kind. All humans are well fed, housed and (for the most part) equal. You can 'die' in any number of ways and will be brought back to life (for a fee of course) but money is easily gained in most cases. How you ask? Because a sentient 'cloud', the Thunderhead, now controls the resources of earth, humanity's destiny and overall life. You can 'turn' back to a younger age at any time and your reproductive organs never seem to fail. And so of course here comes the real problem in a seemingly perfect world...

Someone has to die, there's no room at the inn
Forgive me for the cheap joke but our Earth, not unlike an inn, has a limited amount of space. Even with perfect allocation of resources eventually we will hit a moment of mass capacity. Mathematics makes this inevitable. The solution in Shusterman's amazing story is to have people who are selected to become reapers, called Scythes. 
These are people, generally chosen as teenagers or in their early 20's who are apprenticed to become Scythes. People that select 1% of the population (to a perfect cap number every four months that is kept track of, and where equality is very important, you must not discriminate in who you kill) to permanently die. No regeneration, no second or third chance. Just death. 
Not unlike our own world you could be reaped (killed) at any time. Except in this world it will be because a Scythe chose you. 

Now, you already likely know where this is going right... how do you ensure moral ambiguity for your Scythes. How do they not just become murders? What if they like to kill instead of are doing it because its their job? And who governs/regulates these people? 
All good questions. And ones I won't answer because I want everyone to read Scythe.

Let's face it actually dying is easy; but dealing with death is hard, very hard. Shusterman has taken this complex topic and made it easier to digest. Even the entries, that are very philosophical, from the Scythes personal journals, are written in such a way that anyone with a grade 6 level education could begin to understand and really think about what death means. And subsequently what it means when you can't die. Suicide doesn't work, murder doesn't exist, and Scythes cannot be hired to kill you. Life can become stagnant, boring, and unfulfilling. 

The Ultimate Irony
What do people do when life becomes stagnant, boring and unfulfilling? They change something. Often it's a relationship, work or even family change. A common one... the desire to have a baby. Now in Shusterman's world the issue is over population and yet here are a bunch of bored people who have nothing better to do than have babies because they can. The ability to reproduce never 
disappears and so the surplus population grows, exponentially. 

Here's the reality... like it or not this is true of right now on today's Earth: Reproduction is killing our Earth. Our resources are limited and eventually we will run out of everything except the ocean. This is a scientific fact.
Scythe addresses this issue in an elegant, if harsh way. The reality is that we must either stop reproducing so much at some point (slow our population growth) or we must start killing off people in order to maintain any semblance of balance. Now there is, obviously, no balance at all in our world today. But imagine, like in Scythe, there was balance. All that is left to deal with is birth and death. 

Death instead of reproduction control?
Some part of me wonders why in Scythe there isn't just a push to curb the population in; perhaps put restrictions on reproduction. But let's face it that's just messy and difficult. Ironically killing people off is a lot easier (nervous lol in case people don't get why this is funny to me). This is where Shusterman won me over immediately! He has set up the morales, values, philosophy and mantra of his characters and the world in general so perfectly that you accept that reaping is absolutely needed. Brilliant. 
For me, as an infertile mid-30's woman (who has known she would never have her own children for more than a dozen years) I can say that this approach is very interesting to me. Please don't feel pity for me, I'm happy to be 1 of 5 women who cannot have babies, so that my friends who desperately want them can. So a part of me wonders, and maybe some will think me monstrous for saying this, but what we are really doing when we choose to have a child. Obviously we can't all stop reproducing, but at some point do you not have to ask yourself if it wouldn't be better to have fewer people in the world? And isn't curbing reproduction easier than killing people who are already alive? Food for thought. 

Philosophical yet thrilling
I could write 100 pages alone about just this decision in Scythe (to kill people instead of curb reproduction) nevermind all the other topics that Shusterman touches on. And yet amongst all this philosophy I still love our characters, am blown away by the plot and can't wait to turn each page (while not wanting to turn the page because I didn't want it to be over). I could easily see this becoming a literature piece studied in schools. A teen novel that could change people's perspective, challenge their preconceptions and make them think about their own morality and what they will do with their life (especially given they only get one in our real world). 

And so Scythe now sits on my favourites shelf next to other books like Hunger Games, Graceling, Station Eleven, Ship of Magic, Kushiel's Dart, etc. It's funny that until I put Scythe on this shelf I never realized how many of my favourite books have death as a main topic. I should probably not think about that too much for fear of getting into my mind in a way that could be a little scary. 

For this and more of my reviews please visit my blog at: Epic Reading