Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
A lot of readers seem to really love this book. I didn't. I found it rather odd. Still, seeing the pre-Revolutionary US through Octavian's eyes was rather interesting. Also, I struggled to really know any characters beyond Octavian and Pro Bono. Perhaps that's as it should be, as Octavian wouldn't have known them all that well either. Still, it was a hard book to get into, at least for me, because of that fact. And I, like many others, disliked the last 1/3 of the book because Octavian's life was told through the letters of someone we'd not met and had no investment in. It was weird and disjointed and very frustrating.
This is a brilliant book. Truly, truly brilliant—full of important ideas and hard truths about slavery and freedom, and about the essential core of what America was built on, and for. Furthermore, it’s incredibly well-written, with not one but several unique narrative voices, and a wonderful flair for subtle, chilling symbolism.
It is also so fucking painful I could barely get through it.
The reality of Octavian’s situation—as slave, as experiment—is so brutal that I had to force myself to keep reading. I just wanted it to stop. I don’t think this makes this book any less of an achievement on Anderson’s part, but god does it scare me when I think about reading the sequel or recommending this book to other people.
I did, however, tell the Los Angeles Public Library that I thought its decision to shelve this book under fantasy was either idiotic or offensive. We may like to pretend these things aren’t part of our history—or at least don’t really like to think about them, as my shuddery reaction surely indicates—but it’s important, every once in a while, to be reminded. Anderson does that, not just intellectually, but emotionally. It’s commendable.
It is also so fucking painful I could barely get through it.
The reality of Octavian’s situation—as slave, as experiment—is so brutal that I had to force myself to keep reading. I just wanted it to stop. I don’t think this makes this book any less of an achievement on Anderson’s part, but god does it scare me when I think about reading the sequel or recommending this book to other people.
I did, however, tell the Los Angeles Public Library that I thought its decision to shelve this book under fantasy was either idiotic or offensive. We may like to pretend these things aren’t part of our history—or at least don’t really like to think about them, as my shuddery reaction surely indicates—but it’s important, every once in a while, to be reminded. Anderson does that, not just intellectually, but emotionally. It’s commendable.
I enjoyed this book, but I felt like there were some parts that didn’t require as much explanation. Overall, a great story though and I enjoyed the ending.
A 4.5 Star Book—which only missed five stars for being somewhat unevenly paced.
When it comes to YA historical fiction, my biggest gripe is often the oversimplification of language and complex issues, so much so that it’s insulting even to younger readers. The author here, however, avoids this—questions of race, freedom, and American potential are frankly and thoroughly addressed. I felt the same visceral rage and sadness as the title character, and spent much of my time reading the book wondering how these same issues, still very present in my America, can be dealt with. A must for anyone looking for a new perspective on the American Revolution.
When it comes to YA historical fiction, my biggest gripe is often the oversimplification of language and complex issues, so much so that it’s insulting even to younger readers. The author here, however, avoids this—questions of race, freedom, and American potential are frankly and thoroughly addressed. I felt the same visceral rage and sadness as the title character, and spent much of my time reading the book wondering how these same issues, still very present in my America, can be dealt with. A must for anyone looking for a new perspective on the American Revolution.
The premise of this book was good - I guess the real issue I have with this is that I cannot think of a single teen who would want to read it - they may read it as an assignment but it seems like one of those YA books that adults think teens would like but know nothing of teens. I haven't yet decided if I will read the second volume.
Found this book in my elementary school library. Weird.
Maybe reading about a Pox Party is not what you should be doing right now. I loved this book up until maybe the last 25%...I don't have a problem with the politics of it: the idea that free blacks and the enslaved were treated horribly during the American Revolution. What I do have a problem with is that Octavian, who has been traumatized and silent, suddenly starts speechifying towards the end of the book and not only that, repeating what he says in case you didn't hear it the first time. It was not very subtle! And the rest of the book was so well done in terms of showing us the horrors of this time period. I was kind of into the battle scenes that took place in Boston because I know the areas mentioned but I wonder how interesting they would be for a YA reader who's not a military history buff...overall, an excellent read.
One of the best books I have read recently. The author writes in a way that conveys emotions through the words rather than explicitly stating them. The mood of the writing changes, which makes the book dynamic. Best line: "I gave them their Devil's Trill..."
I was totally surprised by this book, having seen it about a million times at the library, and seeing it never get picked up no matter how much I put it on display, I didn't have that much interest in it. But it has a power that I completely didn't expect. It riled many emotion for me especially anger, and the book left me very angry at people in the past for being so fricken racist. Yay for the present. The book is written from the point of view mostly of an extremely erudite slave, and so the vocab was especially high-level. In fact this book is written at a higher level than many adult books, so even though I included it in the YA category and so does the library, only the most sat prepared teens should read this without a dictionary/laptop trained to dictionary.com. This book contains one of the most loathsome characters in literature by the end I hated him so much that I was hoping for the most terrible and awful comeuppance but spoiler alert it was not to be. I also found the historical part to be quite interesting, and I suggest reading the bit after the end about some of the history, because for example some things in the book are historically accurate rumors but not actual fact. I'm not sure how I feel about the author's use of blacking out much text, I feel it might have been a cop out instead of actually writing about the characters bad emotional state, maybe some blacking out so that it would not consume a large part of the book, but a little more investigation then was present. In terms of historical fiction about the revolutionary war this is like one million times better than johnny tremaine (is that even about the revolutionary war? I'm not sure because it was so boring)