As an author who creates words and as a librarian who finds value in them, I found the ideas presented in this book to be very much in line with my own views. This will definitely make my review biased, but that’s okay. Of course, even though I found this book to be very enjoyable, there were some things that I disliked about it that kept it from earning five stars from me.
Likes:
One thing that I liked about the book was the main protagonists: Letta and Marlo. I love how mysterious and elusive Marlo is in the plot, it makes him a very intriguing character. Letta I found to be a very brave and mature character for her age. She carried a lot of responsibilities and pressure and managed to push through it all as well as fight for what she believed in.
Something that I really enjoy about a story is a good antagonist. I know that typically you are not supposed to like them, but, I can admire one that is well written enough for me to dislike them. Even better still is an antagonist that you are not sure whether or not to like or dislike this person. A morally gray antagonist is an amazing asset that I love to see in a story like this.
Not going to lie, I also enjoyed the family drama that was happening in this book as well. All the little secrets that kept unfolding as the plot developed was a nice touch that keep me interested and turning pages.
[SPOILER ALERT] Okay, so the ending of the story, or towards the middle I think, presented an interesting question. This is going to spoil a little bit but I wanted to share it because it was something pretty interesting about the book. So the idea that words were being deleted and then having a chemical released that turned the human race into nothing more than mindless inhabitants, presented the questions of: How are humans different than animals? I just loved how thought provoking this question is because the idea of the poisoning was to keep the peace and prevent another collapse of humanity’s government. But being this way we live solely off of instincts and we would never be able to advance again. There’s so much more to it than that but I found this question and the information provided in this text to be very thought provoking. Something that I enjoy in a book every now and then.
Dislikes:
There were a couple of minor details that I did not like about the story. One of those being an event being placed in the text for the sole purpose of moving the plot forward. There was little to no foreshadowing or build up to this event, it just sort of happened without warning to act as a catalyst for moving the plot.
Another thing that I disliked about this book was that there was an unresolved subplot. There are other books in this series so I would think that it would be resolved later on, but since its a subplot… I’m not too sure about that.
I was also left questioning what was the purpose of Tintown. Is it just some place to dump the poor and delinquents? Maybe the book mentioned it and I just overlooked it. With resources being tight in this world, I’d hope that Tintown might have some purpose that we didn’t get to see yet in this book.
All in all, this was a very enjoyable book. I loved the theme that this book covers as well as the thought provoking scenarios displayed for us. A very enjoyable read. I hope to check out the other books in the series sometime in the future.
Miranda Talley's Website 