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juushikaTitle: Inside Out
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Published: Ontario: Harlequin Teen, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 97,345
Text Number: 279
Read Because: personal enjoyment, won in a giveaway at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
calico_reaction
Review: Trella is a scrub, a second class citizen in a highly stratified society. She keeps her head down and herself to herself—until she becomes the accidental leader of a revolution to free the scrubs, and perhaps change the future of everyone Inside. I approached Inside Out with reservations, as I've had issues with Snyder before, but I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. What sold me was the originality of the setting: at the book begins, nearly everything about Inside is an intriguing mystery—both how it functions, and why. Following Trella's dangerous explorations step by step and at a brutal pace, revealing what what she knows and uncovering questions she can't answer, the plot initially lends itself well to a high-tension journey of discovery. Exploring the premise makes for an addicting read despite the fact that much else of the book leaves something to be desired. Trella is set up to be an antihero, but her emotional reactions are simplistic and exaggerated. Other characters are shallow, and the romance feels tacked on. Perhaps Snyder is talking down to her target audience, perhaps she doesn't know how to handle character; either way, Trella and her interactions with the rest of the cast are vaguely annoying—and at their best, little more than a vehicle for the setting and plot.
Unfortunately, the setting and plot become less compelling as the book goes on. As the setting grows less mysterious, it loses its intrigue—especially because its underlying truth is an established science-fiction trope, which destroys some of its originality. The pacing of the plot becomes increasingly imprecise, and as it skims over events and hurries towards a rushed, epilogue-style conclusion, the sense of discovery is entirely lost—and without it, the book doesn't have much to offer. That isn't to say it's bad: Inside Out is an average, competent example of its genre, from unremarkable writing and protagonist to compelling, consumable pacing. I may not have been expecting much, but it certainly exceeded my expectations, and much of it was an enjoyably engrossing read. That there was so much—characters, emotional motivation, and occassionally the plot—that I couldn't bring myself to care about is a flaw, but not one that got in the way of a day of pleasure reading. I'm glad I had the chance to read this book for free, and I don't expect I'll ever come back to it—but I do want to read more books like it. I recommend it on similar grounds: Inside Out isn't worth going out of your way, but if it's there and you want an absorbing distraction, you could do worse.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Published: Ontario: Harlequin Teen, 2010
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 315
Total Page Count: 97,345
Text Number: 279
Read Because: personal enjoyment, won in a giveaway at
calico_reactionReview: Trella is a scrub, a second class citizen in a highly stratified society. She keeps her head down and herself to herself—until she becomes the accidental leader of a revolution to free the scrubs, and perhaps change the future of everyone Inside. I approached Inside Out with reservations, as I've had issues with Snyder before, but I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. What sold me was the originality of the setting: at the book begins, nearly everything about Inside is an intriguing mystery—both how it functions, and why. Following Trella's dangerous explorations step by step and at a brutal pace, revealing what what she knows and uncovering questions she can't answer, the plot initially lends itself well to a high-tension journey of discovery. Exploring the premise makes for an addicting read despite the fact that much else of the book leaves something to be desired. Trella is set up to be an antihero, but her emotional reactions are simplistic and exaggerated. Other characters are shallow, and the romance feels tacked on. Perhaps Snyder is talking down to her target audience, perhaps she doesn't know how to handle character; either way, Trella and her interactions with the rest of the cast are vaguely annoying—and at their best, little more than a vehicle for the setting and plot.
Unfortunately, the setting and plot become less compelling as the book goes on. As the setting grows less mysterious, it loses its intrigue—especially because its underlying truth is an established science-fiction trope, which destroys some of its originality. The pacing of the plot becomes increasingly imprecise, and as it skims over events and hurries towards a rushed, epilogue-style conclusion, the sense of discovery is entirely lost—and without it, the book doesn't have much to offer. That isn't to say it's bad: Inside Out is an average, competent example of its genre, from unremarkable writing and protagonist to compelling, consumable pacing. I may not have been expecting much, but it certainly exceeded my expectations, and much of it was an enjoyably engrossing read. That there was so much—characters, emotional motivation, and occassionally the plot—that I couldn't bring myself to care about is a flaw, but not one that got in the way of a day of pleasure reading. I'm glad I had the chance to read this book for free, and I don't expect I'll ever come back to it—but I do want to read more books like it. I recommend it on similar grounds: Inside Out isn't worth going out of your way, but if it's there and you want an absorbing distraction, you could do worse.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
