You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this book it did start out slow for me but then I didn’t see the end coming. I can’t wait to read the next one!
Gunslinger Girl is a book that I really wanted to like, but had…cautious…expectations for it. Despite my caution, it ended up being quite a disappointment.
The Summary
Serendipity “Pity” Jones escapes her horrible father and their restrictive dystopian commune. She ends up in the Las Vegas of her country, and finds a job as a performing gunslinger at an acclaimed theater. As she tries to find her way in this strange society, a lot of sinister forces are hiding in the shadows…
The Analysis
The book starts in your standard YA dystopian setting. It then moves from dystopian to hardcore Wild West-ing with just a hint of dystopian in the background.
The book makes its first mistake in the premise. It sets up a a society, and unsavory situation for Pity, that she needs to escape. Once Pity finds her way to Cessation, this backstory is all but forgotten. Her mother, who died long before Pity found herself in the need of escape, is mentioned a few times…but that is all we really here again of Pity’s background. I guess her father hunting her down doesn’t sound all that interesting considering everything else that happens, but Pity keeps thinking he might? And there is no follow through on that threat. This book has a lot of that–empty threats and tension that ultimately have nothing to do with the conflict. Even Pity’s conflict in competing, something that is a focus of the book’s marketing, is a footnote to what this book is actually about.
What was the book about? I’m not sure… There’s a lot of politics in play, and a lot of twists. So many twists, in fact, that some twists turn out not to be twists because what you intially thought was the real truth. Some twists are also not important to the story, even though Pity tries to tell us it is.
The romance holding up the story is also very weak. It’s a great example of telling instead of showing. Pity always told us how she felt, and other characters told us how Max felt but I could never bring myself to care.
I like the idea of a Wild West themed dystopian. It hasn’t been done much in books that I know of, though I think it’s the premise of sci-fi TV show Westworld. I wish Gunslinger Girl had delivered more on what it offered. Since it didn’t, maybe I should watch Westworld. If you’ve watched it, please share your opinion of the show in the comments! I liked the idea of this book, but didn’t like it once I started reading it. Do you think Westworld will deliver what I want?
The Summary
Serendipity “Pity” Jones escapes her horrible father and their restrictive dystopian commune. She ends up in the Las Vegas of her country, and finds a job as a performing gunslinger at an acclaimed theater. As she tries to find her way in this strange society, a lot of sinister forces are hiding in the shadows…
The Analysis
The book starts in your standard YA dystopian setting. It then moves from dystopian to hardcore Wild West-ing with just a hint of dystopian in the background.
The book makes its first mistake in the premise. It sets up a a society, and unsavory situation for Pity, that she needs to escape. Once Pity finds her way to Cessation, this backstory is all but forgotten. Her mother, who died long before Pity found herself in the need of escape, is mentioned a few times…but that is all we really here again of Pity’s background. I guess her father hunting her down doesn’t sound all that interesting considering everything else that happens, but Pity keeps thinking he might? And there is no follow through on that threat. This book has a lot of that–empty threats and tension that ultimately have nothing to do with the conflict. Even Pity’s conflict in competing, something that is a focus of the book’s marketing, is a footnote to what this book is actually about.
What was the book about? I’m not sure… There’s a lot of politics in play, and a lot of twists. So many twists, in fact, that some twists turn out not to be twists because what you intially thought was the real truth. Some twists are also not important to the story, even though Pity tries to tell us it is.
The romance holding up the story is also very weak. It’s a great example of telling instead of showing. Pity always told us how she felt, and other characters told us how Max felt but I could never bring myself to care.
I like the idea of a Wild West themed dystopian. It hasn’t been done much in books that I know of, though I think it’s the premise of sci-fi TV show Westworld. I wish Gunslinger Girl had delivered more on what it offered. Since it didn’t, maybe I should watch Westworld. If you’ve watched it, please share your opinion of the show in the comments! I liked the idea of this book, but didn’t like it once I started reading it. Do you think Westworld will deliver what I want?
“She should have seen it coming. Six months and she’d be lawfully released from his control. But he couldn’t let that happen easy, not him.”
From the very first moment I saw photos of this gorgeous book being released at BookCon, I knew I had to have this book. A dystopian with a Western twist? For fans of Westworld?! Katniss Everdeen meets Annie Oakley??? Um, YES PLEASE!!!
I was thrilled when I opened a package and saw that my request had been approved and have been hugging this book EVER SINCE!
Serendipity Jones is a sharp shooter. She’s the best in her commune, but that doesn’t matter. She was born the wrong gender. A woman with the potential to be fertile is more valuable than a woman who can shoot. But she has plans. Plans to leave, plans to escape to the Capital. Unfortunately, her father also has plans. And they don’t involve her freedom.
When her best friend offers her the chance to escape before her father can sell her, Pity jumps at the chance. But the world outside of the gates of the communes is deadly, and Pity quickly finds herself a prisoner headed to the lawless city of Cessation, the last bastion of freedom standing against the oppressive forces of CONA, the Confederacy of North America.
“Is this a city, she thought, or an asylum?”
Now she has something resembling freedom being offered to her by the city’s leader, the beautiful and lethal Selene, but there is a price. With little options in front of her, Pity accepts and tries to navigate the treacherous path that she finds herself on.
This book is incredible! Pity is such a delightful protagonist. This is YA that sucks you in from the very beginning and doesn’t let go. I love when characters are so real you feel like you could know them. Pity is strong and determined, but she is also a little unsure of the path before her. She makes mistakes, some with horrific consequences that haunt her and make her doubt herself. I enjoyed reading her journey on that path to self-discovery.
“The low burn of anger that had been coursing through her exploded suddenly, fury hot and vicious cold at the same time, and tinged with guilt.”
This guilt and sureness over who she wants to be, combined with the battle of hesitation and unsurety over whether she actually could be that person made Pity so heart-achingly good. I like a character who has to face the idea versus the reality of their inner selves, especially when outside forces raise the bar on the consequences of that struggle.
Beyond Pity, we get introduced to an array of diverse characters. Duchess, Luster, and Max are a few of my favorites, but even Selene and Halycon add to the complicated deliciousness of the world Pity finds herself in.
“Clean was the first for that popped into Pity’s mind as his raptor’s gaze tracked them. Dangerous was the second.”
The vast cast of characters all give the world in Cessation a rich texture, with each character highlighting a distinct piece of that world. We get to see through the eyes of security and performers. People escaping lives in communes that are unthinkable. Each accepting their role with varying degrees of success and hiding from a past that haunts each one of them in it’s own way.
Each characters gives you the sense of what a real oasis this city can be, while simultaneously being a gilded prison. This dichotomy really drives home the idea that everything has a price. Especially freedom.
“What others did to secure themselves wasn’t for her to judge – not when their situations were dire enough to make her wonder what she might do in the same place.”
It isn’t just the world of Cessation or the colonies that we get to see, although the bigger world of CONA is something I suspect we’ll begin to see more of in future books. We know that this world is what we are left with after a Second Civil War. We know the rumors of the Capital, and then we learn the reality. At least, some of the reality. But the history of the War, and the reality of other communes are things only hinted at in this book.
I tend to like my dystopian worlds to be revealed to me slowly. The horror of the future our characters find themselves in showing itself in unexpected and surprising ways. Gunslinger Girl did not disappoint in this way. Just as we accept the world as it is, new details emerge that really stab you in the gut with the terrible reality of what the world really can be. And I love when authors give us a slow road into hell, bringing us deeper into the world with more revealed in each new book. It gives the world a rich texture that just can’t be accomplished all at once.
Gunslinger Girl is a unique new dystopian and I adored every moment of it. The characters are complex and fun. The world is intoxicating and horrifying. The writing is beautiful and brutal.
“When someone brought her a cup of ice water, she took it without a word. It slid down her throat and into her stomach like a blade.”
Lyndsay Ely has created something incredible with this book and has quickly made me a fan rabid for more. Her voice and imagination are both stunning and I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next!
Thank you Little, Brown & Jimmy Patterson Books for sending me a copy to read and review!
From the very first moment I saw photos of this gorgeous book being released at BookCon, I knew I had to have this book. A dystopian with a Western twist? For fans of Westworld?! Katniss Everdeen meets Annie Oakley??? Um, YES PLEASE!!!
I was thrilled when I opened a package and saw that my request had been approved and have been hugging this book EVER SINCE!
Serendipity Jones is a sharp shooter. She’s the best in her commune, but that doesn’t matter. She was born the wrong gender. A woman with the potential to be fertile is more valuable than a woman who can shoot. But she has plans. Plans to leave, plans to escape to the Capital. Unfortunately, her father also has plans. And they don’t involve her freedom.
When her best friend offers her the chance to escape before her father can sell her, Pity jumps at the chance. But the world outside of the gates of the communes is deadly, and Pity quickly finds herself a prisoner headed to the lawless city of Cessation, the last bastion of freedom standing against the oppressive forces of CONA, the Confederacy of North America.
“Is this a city, she thought, or an asylum?”
Now she has something resembling freedom being offered to her by the city’s leader, the beautiful and lethal Selene, but there is a price. With little options in front of her, Pity accepts and tries to navigate the treacherous path that she finds herself on.
This book is incredible! Pity is such a delightful protagonist. This is YA that sucks you in from the very beginning and doesn’t let go. I love when characters are so real you feel like you could know them. Pity is strong and determined, but she is also a little unsure of the path before her. She makes mistakes, some with horrific consequences that haunt her and make her doubt herself. I enjoyed reading her journey on that path to self-discovery.
“The low burn of anger that had been coursing through her exploded suddenly, fury hot and vicious cold at the same time, and tinged with guilt.”
This guilt and sureness over who she wants to be, combined with the battle of hesitation and unsurety over whether she actually could be that person made Pity so heart-achingly good. I like a character who has to face the idea versus the reality of their inner selves, especially when outside forces raise the bar on the consequences of that struggle.
Beyond Pity, we get introduced to an array of diverse characters. Duchess, Luster, and Max are a few of my favorites, but even Selene and Halycon add to the complicated deliciousness of the world Pity finds herself in.
“Clean was the first for that popped into Pity’s mind as his raptor’s gaze tracked them. Dangerous was the second.”
The vast cast of characters all give the world in Cessation a rich texture, with each character highlighting a distinct piece of that world. We get to see through the eyes of security and performers. People escaping lives in communes that are unthinkable. Each accepting their role with varying degrees of success and hiding from a past that haunts each one of them in it’s own way.
Each characters gives you the sense of what a real oasis this city can be, while simultaneously being a gilded prison. This dichotomy really drives home the idea that everything has a price. Especially freedom.
“What others did to secure themselves wasn’t for her to judge – not when their situations were dire enough to make her wonder what she might do in the same place.”
It isn’t just the world of Cessation or the colonies that we get to see, although the bigger world of CONA is something I suspect we’ll begin to see more of in future books. We know that this world is what we are left with after a Second Civil War. We know the rumors of the Capital, and then we learn the reality. At least, some of the reality. But the history of the War, and the reality of other communes are things only hinted at in this book.
I tend to like my dystopian worlds to be revealed to me slowly. The horror of the future our characters find themselves in showing itself in unexpected and surprising ways. Gunslinger Girl did not disappoint in this way. Just as we accept the world as it is, new details emerge that really stab you in the gut with the terrible reality of what the world really can be. And I love when authors give us a slow road into hell, bringing us deeper into the world with more revealed in each new book. It gives the world a rich texture that just can’t be accomplished all at once.
Gunslinger Girl is a unique new dystopian and I adored every moment of it. The characters are complex and fun. The world is intoxicating and horrifying. The writing is beautiful and brutal.
“When someone brought her a cup of ice water, she took it without a word. It slid down her throat and into her stomach like a blade.”
Lyndsay Ely has created something incredible with this book and has quickly made me a fan rabid for more. Her voice and imagination are both stunning and I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next!
Thank you Little, Brown & Jimmy Patterson Books for sending me a copy to read and review!
At the beginning of this book I was really enjoying it. I didn't know quite what to expect other than it was supposed to be a mix of sci-fi and western, and it partially met those expectations, but for the most part it didn't. It starts of with Pity being stuck in a commune with a horrible father who is selling her off because she is fertile and then Pity runs off with her best friend. At that point I was on bored with this book, I was excited to read about the plot of them trying to survive on the run, but then it turned into what felt like something totally different. Pity ends up going to a town (Cessation) where she ends up joining a theater group, and the story turns into her learning to fit in with these new people. For the most part there wasn't anything that I really liked about the book after Pity got to Cessation, and I didn't like the fact that I was expecting to get one thing and ended up getting something else from this story. Near the end, it does loop back around to the dystopian aspect of the book of wanting to take down the leaders and what not, but by that point I just wasn't interested anymore. Overall, I just wasn't that impressed, I have never read any Western books before so I can't compare it to any others, but this book did sort of get me in the mood to read others because I want to know what one that I actually like would be like.
This really wasn't what I thought it would be. I was promised a western and a bad ass sharshotter, I got... some sort of circus and a MC who was a bit flat around the edges. Mostly what bothered me was the setting and the background, I got no good sense of that, I found it all very confused and hazy, no real descriptions of places or characters...
Not a good fit for me!
Not a good fit for me!
Didn't do anything for me. Overwritten at times. Nothing particularly new in the YA dystopian genre.
Absolutely Loved this book. If it's a series or trilogy or duology I want the next one. Hunger Games meets Wild Wild West!
This one was definitely different, but the audiobook kept me engaged and I actually enjoyed it until right around the end. If it had ended differently, I might have given it 5 stars.