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sunrays118's review
2.0
I honestly don't understand the point of this book. It was an enjoyable read but it barely contained a fully developed plot, the characters were very one dimensional, the ending was lacking. I suppose I am just disappointed. I expect more - I expected something.
zmull's review
3.0
Dystopias are everywhere in YA these days. Personally, I've avoided a lot of the bigger YA titles for that reason. Maggot Moon is different from the sprawling dystopias of the Hunger Games and Maze Runner. It's a lot smaller and more intimate. It's set in a "Germany won" type alternate history, but we don't get many details. Somebody won and now Britain is the subject of the "Motherland." The story is creaky in places - the main character is dyslexic, but that doesn't effect the story much, the later chapters are packed with coincidences and unlikely breaks - but the writing is great and, Standish is a wonderful character. Some language, but nothing a tween couldn't handle. I enjoyed it.
Oh, the illustrations are gross. I could have done without those.
Oh, the illustrations are gross. I could have done without those.
mary00's review
2.0
This book is too strange and "new age" for my taste; also too depressing. However, the writing is powerful in parts and I can understand why it is an award winning book. I should give it a higher rating for the quality of writing, but I really didn't care for it, and ratings are completely subjective anyway, so I'm not going to!
amidala7567's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
dherzey's review
4.0
This is a confusing book at the start (I got the summary of the book which doesn't really say anything). I was lost and didn't know or understand what's up. It seems like everything is shrouded in a certain allusion and it didn't help that the timeline of the narrative skips between the past and present. But I was captivated. The world where Standish lives is painted simply by showing us what it is and how it is. It is a cruel, fascist regime very much like a world run-down by Nazis -- if they ever won. The only peace Standish could have is inside his mind, through dreams of a world freer than his reality.
I love how the story doesn't go around in details and actually make it work. The main character's voice is honest and frank, tells you exactly what he sees, plainly tells you how it is. Standish Treadwell is dyslexic and a dreamer but probably braver and smarter than what people tells him to be. The ending seems like a crazy, very Standish idea, an ideal plan that is more probable to fail than work. Furthermore, this novel didn't really limit itself in showing how a world could be brutal even through the eyes of one of its most innocent witnesses. Yet I am captivated in every bit of it and I like how even at the end, there is always this dream, this hope of something better and golden that cannot be erased on someone like Standish -- the idealists, the dreamers. It may be weak and delusional but there is strength in there too. There is a courage in daring to imagine better places despite reality forcing its way through them. Crushing, butchering and tainting colorless all imagination.
Indeed, an extraordinarily narrated tale which is both bleak and hopeful.
Some favorite passages:
I love how the story doesn't go around in details and actually make it work. The main character's voice is honest and frank, tells you exactly what he sees, plainly tells you how it is. Standish Treadwell is dyslexic and a dreamer but probably braver and smarter than what people tells him to be. The ending seems like a crazy, very Standish idea, an ideal plan that is more probable to fail than work. Furthermore, this novel didn't really limit itself in showing how a world could be brutal even through the eyes of one of its most innocent witnesses. Yet I am captivated in every bit of it and I like how even at the end, there is always this dream, this hope of something better and golden that cannot be erased on someone like Standish -- the idealists, the dreamers. It may be weak and delusional but there is strength in there too. There is a courage in daring to imagine better places despite reality forcing its way through them. Crushing, butchering and tainting colorless all imagination.
Indeed, an extraordinarily narrated tale which is both bleak and hopeful.
Some favorite passages:
"It had struck me then that the world was full of holes, holes which you could fall into, never to be seen again. I couldn't understand the difference between disappearance and death. Both seemed the same to me, both left holes. Holes in your heart. Holes in you life. It wasn't hard to see how many holes there were. You could tell when there was another one. The lights would switched off in the house, then it was either blown up or pulled down."
_____
"Numbers mattered to Gramps. Seven dead rats was something the king of rats would respect. Shoot one rat and all this relatives will come looking for you; shoot seven and they understand you mean business."
_____
"That summer, in the wilderness of crumbling bricks and mortar, white roses had appeared in those derelict suburbs. Gramps said that if man was mad enough to destroy itself, at least the rats and cockroaches would have front-row seats, be able to enjoy the sight of Mother Nature reclaiming the earth."
hayleybeale's review
5.0
What an amazing read! I re-read this as soon as I'd finished it - first time I've ever done that. This is like reading '1984' narrated by Christopher from 'The Curious Incident...' It is set in a 1956 in which the Nazis won the war (this is not explicitly stated, but the clues are there, I think) and Standish and his grandfather live in Zone Seven - where the 'impure' are sent. Standish is dyslexic (maybe, again never stated explicitly) and it is his use of language that makes this such an incredible read - he is not a 'train track thinker' and twists everyday adages which creates startling new images ("a hare's breath" for example). The story is rooted in Standish's friendship with Hector, which is so beautifully evoked that the ending is unbearably sad. The illustrations of rats, flies and maggots baffled me at first, but on the second reading I could see how they run as a harmony to the prose, as well as personifying (if that's what it is with an animal) the corruption, decay and rot at the heart of the Motherland. This is a really short book (100 chapters, some of which are only a paragraph long) and deceptively simple, but as the author does not spell everything out for the reader it is a densely rich,intense and rewarding read. (Just as a caution, there is some brutal violence which is made worse by the apparent everyday casualness of its occurrence - it is not Hollywood movie violence but is imaginably real)
missbookiverse's review against another edition
3.0
Die Sprache war ganz toll, viele markierungswürdige Formulierungen und sprachliche Bilder. Die Idee fand ich auch interessant, aber insgesamt war mir zu wenig Fleisch an der Geschichte und den Figuren. Es liest sich mehr wie eine Novelle oder eine Kurzgeschichte, zu wenig Substanz, um mich so richtig umzuhauen. Würde ich mir aber irgendwann auch noch mal anhören oder vielleicht selbst lesen.