You may have noticed that I am currently lacking a logo for my Fiction Friday. Sorry, I'm working on that....
*ahem*
I haven't read much YA in the last few months (because frankly, it all started sounding the same) so I was rather surprised with myself for picking this particular book off the shelves. I like the cover (I happen to be very fond of blueish green or greenish blue or however you want to call that), so maybe that explains it.
This particular YA "distopian fairytale", as Kiersten White calls it on the back cover, is the first in a series by Kiera Cass. I do believe it's her first novel of this type (she wrote one called The Siren
earlier, but I haven't read it). It is set in a world after a 4th World War, in a country where the number of your caste determines everything - your job, your prospects, the likelihood of you going to bed hungry or not.
America Singer, aptly named for a country that fought hard for its independence, is quite happy being a 5 - an artist by caste. She's in love with Aspen, a 6, one caste lower than hers, but she doesn't care about that. Love conquers all...or does it? When she's selected to be one of 35 girls to compete for the hand of Prince Maxon in a Bacheloresque TV-show setting, she finds out that feelings are not that simple.
And then, as if falling in like with the Prince in spite of herself, living through rebel attacks and trying to get along with the competition (35 girls wanting one thing? Bitchiness is pretty much pre-programmed there...), she has to decide what to do with her feelings for Aspen... does she love him still?
The whole book was a nicely flowing read, and kept me amused well into the night (yes, I had to finish it before I went to bed...always a good sign for a book). I rather like the way more and more of these fairy-tale inspired stories are turning up. Fairy tales have been around so long for a reason - they're classic plots that fit a whole load of situations and cultures. This book is clearly starting with a Cinderella premise, but I'm very curious to see if it'll start leaning towards a Lancelot-Arthur-Guinevere triangle situation...
I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. Ok, so I still prefer the epic scale and intrigue of, say Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archives 1)
, but this book is GOOD. Definitely one of the best YA novels (especially of the dystopian kind) I've read in the last couple of years, and that's saying something. There's been a lot of really good YA literature going around the last decade or so.
Therefore, without further ado, I do say this book deserves
earlier, but I haven't read it). It is set in a world after a 4th World War, in a country where the number of your caste determines everything - your job, your prospects, the likelihood of you going to bed hungry or not.America Singer, aptly named for a country that fought hard for its independence, is quite happy being a 5 - an artist by caste. She's in love with Aspen, a 6, one caste lower than hers, but she doesn't care about that. Love conquers all...or does it? When she's selected to be one of 35 girls to compete for the hand of Prince Maxon in a Bacheloresque TV-show setting, she finds out that feelings are not that simple.
And then, as if falling in like with the Prince in spite of herself, living through rebel attacks and trying to get along with the competition (35 girls wanting one thing? Bitchiness is pretty much pre-programmed there...), she has to decide what to do with her feelings for Aspen... does she love him still?
The whole book was a nicely flowing read, and kept me amused well into the night (yes, I had to finish it before I went to bed...always a good sign for a book). I rather like the way more and more of these fairy-tale inspired stories are turning up. Fairy tales have been around so long for a reason - they're classic plots that fit a whole load of situations and cultures. This book is clearly starting with a Cinderella premise, but I'm very curious to see if it'll start leaning towards a Lancelot-Arthur-Guinevere triangle situation...
I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. Ok, so I still prefer the epic scale and intrigue of, say Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archives 1)
, but this book is GOOD. Definitely one of the best YA novels (especially of the dystopian kind) I've read in the last couple of years, and that's saying something. There's been a lot of really good YA literature going around the last decade or so.Therefore, without further ado, I do say this book deserves
Four out of Five Stars!
2 comments:
I do love Sanderson's heavy tome. I heard the next one is coming out in March.
@ Susan: November!!! The next book is out in November. Whilst writing it, Sanderson called it "the book of endless pages"... *snigger*
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