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thissagreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
The main character Jay is really stuck in delusion and I think it’s what made the book a very frustrating read at times. All of his friends knew not to trust the wealthy, white owned establishment and it takes (what feels like) a very long time for Jay to finally understand all the evil that was truly happening to the townspeople.
When the end of the world starts happening, Jay and the middle class/working class people in town are essentially left no choice but to stay and become indentured servants/slaves to the rich, investors of the town. The town was originally a theme park that’s akin to a huge Disneyland/world, and it prepped itself to be completely self-sustaining. When the town goes on lockdown to shield them from the end of the world turmoil outside of the confines of the amusement park/community, things turn dark and bleak pretty immediately for the working townspeople. But of course those who found out the plan beforehand and resisted, “disappeared” and those who disobeyed the (rude) newly moved-in wealthy residents, were zapped on their required to wear bracelets, with electricity voltages that could “accidentally” kill someone if the button was pressed for too long. The reader can see all the bad starting to happen before the lockdown like the food rations and creepy drones, on top of the missing residents. But Jay doesn’t stop supporting the establishment -for housing his family and giving them good jobs- until he gets zapped nearly to death. Unfortunately Jay finds out the hard way that classism and power can be incredibly dangerous, but we follow his journey and root for him and the resistance/revolution.
This was a solid dystopian story with a lot of realism that really worked with the plot. I was engaged for majority of the story, but I do have to warn the readers that Jay can be very much of an “Uncle Tom”, dancing for the man, for at least a quarter of the book. It almost made me DNF the book because he was defending the wealthy so much, but rest assured, he finally opened his eyes and saw even terrible things to change his opinion and fight for what was right.
This was a solid dystopian story with a lot of realism that really worked with the plot. I was engaged for majority of the story, but I do have to warn the readers that Jay can be very much of an “Uncle Tom”, dancing for the man, for at least a quarter of the book. It almost made me DNF the book because he was defending the wealthy so much, but rest assured, he finally opened his eyes and saw even terrible things to change his opinion and fight for what was right.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Classism
Moderate: Murder, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Terminal illness
Minor: Racism
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