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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
I wanted to like this book more than I did. Some of the writing was beautiful and at times it also lost my interest. I loved the premise and the well thought out crafting of the dystopian future.
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
His world building was excellent, and the week of the "ban gas stoves" controversy was a good week to read about a future Southern secession premised on continued fossil fuel use. The dialogue was largely expository and otherwise clunky, so it read more like a treatment for Premium Television than a novel. It will make a great TV show, for sure.
Couldn't get into it. I read about 80 pages but it was bogged in details that I couldn't connect to. Great premise and good writing though.
Totally not my thing, but it was well written.
Interesting and unique, but I didn't exactly love it. Sorry Jess!
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
"You fight the war with guns. You fight the peace with stories."
" 'Everyone fights an American war.' "
" 'Everyone fights an American war.' "
"You fight the war with guns. You fight the peace with stories."
" 'Everyone fights an American war.' "
" 'Everyone fights an American war.' "
4.5 stars - and going on my favourites-2020 shelf because I continued to ponder this book months after reading it.
A stunning and gut wrenching portrait of war and the commonality of the human experience. This book is difficult to read, as we see how a child ultimately grows into an instrument of terror. The fictional horrors visited upon Sarat throughout the course of her relatively short life are, unfortunately, all incidents that have their origins in actual events.
I was so impressed by the author's writing. I realise he is an experienced and decorated journalist, but his novel writing skill is absolutely evident here. It isn't what I would call poetic, but it certainly is evocative, easily rendering itself in three dimensional images in the mind of the reader.
The ending is no surprise, as it is set up right from the outset. Even so, I could not help but keep hoping to the last it would somehow be a different one. Not only for the people of that fictional world, but for Sarat herself.
[T]he misery of war represented the world's only truly universal language. Its native speakers occupied different ends of the world, and the prayers they recited were not the same and the empty superstitions to which they clung so dearly were not the same--and yet they were. War broke them in the same way, made them scared and angry and vengeful the same way. In times of peace and good fortune they were nothing alike, but stripped of these things they were kin. The universal slogan of war, she'd learned, was simple: If it had been you, you'd have done no different.
***
On a personal note, I noticed several reviewers expressed some disbelief that people would get so worked up over the issue of banning the use of fossil fuels (the basis of the initial conflict between the Northern and Southern US states in this book). Honestly, I believe it. I drive an electric car (yes, for environmental reasons), and I can tell you that there are so many people out there who are incredibly angry and rude both in their actions and in expressing their opinions on the very idea that they too might one day be expected to drive one. One person's decision to drive an electric car certainly doesn't affect them personally at all, but you would never know it. (And seriously, if you are an electric car sceptic, you should try one! They are an amazingly nice drive.)
I don't have to use much imagination to believe people can become incredibly violent over the issue of banning fossil fuels, particularly if they perceive it to have any effect on their jobs or local economy (people generally do not do well with change of any kind), because I already see it starting to happen. Climate change and what to do about it is an emotional and divisive issue for people, of that there is no doubt.
A stunning and gut wrenching portrait of war and the commonality of the human experience. This book is difficult to read, as we see how a child ultimately grows into an instrument of terror. The fictional horrors visited upon Sarat throughout the course of her relatively short life are, unfortunately, all incidents that have their origins in actual events.
I was so impressed by the author's writing. I realise he is an experienced and decorated journalist, but his novel writing skill is absolutely evident here. It isn't what I would call poetic, but it certainly is evocative, easily rendering itself in three dimensional images in the mind of the reader.
The ending is no surprise, as it is set up right from the outset. Even so, I could not help but keep hoping to the last it would somehow be a different one. Not only for the people of that fictional world, but for Sarat herself.
[T]he misery of war represented the world's only truly universal language. Its native speakers occupied different ends of the world, and the prayers they recited were not the same and the empty superstitions to which they clung so dearly were not the same--and yet they were. War broke them in the same way, made them scared and angry and vengeful the same way. In times of peace and good fortune they were nothing alike, but stripped of these things they were kin. The universal slogan of war, she'd learned, was simple: If it had been you, you'd have done no different.
***
On a personal note, I noticed several reviewers expressed some disbelief that people would get so worked up over the issue of banning the use of fossil fuels (the basis of the initial conflict between the Northern and Southern US states in this book). Honestly, I believe it. I drive an electric car (yes, for environmental reasons), and I can tell you that there are so many people out there who are incredibly angry and rude both in their actions and in expressing their opinions on the very idea that they too might one day be expected to drive one. One person's decision to drive an electric car certainly doesn't affect them personally at all, but you would never know it. (And seriously, if you are an electric car sceptic, you should try one! They are an amazingly nice drive.)
I don't have to use much imagination to believe people can become incredibly violent over the issue of banning fossil fuels, particularly if they perceive it to have any effect on their jobs or local economy (people generally do not do well with change of any kind), because I already see it starting to happen. Climate change and what to do about it is an emotional and divisive issue for people, of that there is no doubt.