You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
This was an excellent young adult book. It takes the idea of a futuristic society to a new level. The "Limit" refers to families who go over their spending limit and end up losing a teenage child to a workhouse. All of the main characters find their lives forever changed when they go over "The Limit." Excellent story. I hope that Ms. Landon writes another book.
See, for me, that blurb exerts far more tension than what the story did. Yeah, the threat is there but it's kind of cartoonish and the way it's told kind of waters down the tension that could be there.
To be fair, this is more of a middle grade novel than a young adult. Just the age of the MC and the style it was written in showcases that so I'm not a prime candidate to judge this one. But I think I can still make a few comments on it.
I loved the kids in this story. I just thought each one of them so individually unique, with their own quirks that stood out so vividly on the page that I felt they were right there next to me. Matt was so real and up until the end, even Honey Lady (a nickname Matt gave her that existed, for the most part, in his head) was exceptionally real. I think that was the strongest part of this book; the characters.
The world I could believe too. I'm not sure of the greater overall motive of the government to put spending caps on people or take their children away. It's really government spending and deregulation that ultimately screws over debt but that's beside the point. It felt real to me for personal reasons I won't go into. I kept being able to put myself in Matt's shoes and I found it horrifying. When you're that young you have such faith in your parents that they're doing right and when you find out they're not infallible, it hurts. In this world it just so happens the children that have to have that realization end up paying for it. Again, I don't really get the dynamics but I'll swallow it.
The parts leading up to the workhouse were really good, grinding in tension in the background through backstory and hint-dropping. I liked it. But I think it unhinged a little bit once the workhouse came into play. I liked THE BIG REVEAL towards the end but I think the context could have been a little better. I don't want to give anything away so I'll say that the threat isn't all that present in the way it's presented. Good for trickery but, to me anyway, bad for the ultimate execution of it.
The biggest thing that threw me, though, was that every adult seemed to be suffering from Idiot Adult Syndrome. Not as common in YA (I don't think, at least not in what I've read) but much more prevalent in MG where all of the adults end up being dopes for the sake of allowing the kids to rise to the top and solve the problem. I likened it to those really obnoxious live action shows on Disney or Nickelodeon where the parents are just caricatures of what parents really are. I absolutely facepalmed a few times with some of these adults, especially towards the end. All I'll say is, to save the plot, if you're a member of SWAT and need to rely on kids to connect the dots in front of your face for you, you need to lose your job for the safety of the greater public.
I was ultimately okay with the book until the end when every adult in the story turned into a raging moron. That just aggravated me. I understand that the kids need to be the ones to solve the problem in these books but it doesn't make them look any better to plop them in a pool full of idiots. Really, it was a good story. I enjoyed it. I didn't think it carried the amount of tension it would have liked to (especially by the way of the blurb) but it was enjoyable. Just beware of idiot adults. They run rampant in The Limit.
To be fair, this is more of a middle grade novel than a young adult. Just the age of the MC and the style it was written in showcases that so I'm not a prime candidate to judge this one. But I think I can still make a few comments on it.
I loved the kids in this story. I just thought each one of them so individually unique, with their own quirks that stood out so vividly on the page that I felt they were right there next to me. Matt was so real and up until the end, even Honey Lady (a nickname Matt gave her that existed, for the most part, in his head) was exceptionally real. I think that was the strongest part of this book; the characters.
The world I could believe too. I'm not sure of the greater overall motive of the government to put spending caps on people or take their children away. It's really government spending and deregulation that ultimately screws over debt but that's beside the point. It felt real to me for personal reasons I won't go into. I kept being able to put myself in Matt's shoes and I found it horrifying. When you're that young you have such faith in your parents that they're doing right and when you find out they're not infallible, it hurts. In this world it just so happens the children that have to have that realization end up paying for it. Again, I don't really get the dynamics but I'll swallow it.
The parts leading up to the workhouse were really good, grinding in tension in the background through backstory and hint-dropping. I liked it. But I think it unhinged a little bit once the workhouse came into play. I liked THE BIG REVEAL towards the end but I think the context could have been a little better. I don't want to give anything away so I'll say that the threat isn't all that present in the way it's presented. Good for trickery but, to me anyway, bad for the ultimate execution of it.
The biggest thing that threw me, though, was that every adult seemed to be suffering from Idiot Adult Syndrome. Not as common in YA (I don't think, at least not in what I've read) but much more prevalent in MG where all of the adults end up being dopes for the sake of allowing the kids to rise to the top and solve the problem. I likened it to those really obnoxious live action shows on Disney or Nickelodeon where the parents are just caricatures of what parents really are. I absolutely facepalmed a few times with some of these adults, especially towards the end. All I'll say is, to save the plot, if you're a member of SWAT and need to rely on kids to connect the dots in front of your face for you, you need to lose your job for the safety of the greater public.
I was ultimately okay with the book until the end when every adult in the story turned into a raging moron. That just aggravated me. I understand that the kids need to be the ones to solve the problem in these books but it doesn't make them look any better to plop them in a pool full of idiots. Really, it was a good story. I enjoyed it. I didn't think it carried the amount of tension it would have liked to (especially by the way of the blurb) but it was enjoyable. Just beware of idiot adults. They run rampant in The Limit.
A book with a teenage protagonist who ends up "working off" his parents' debt. Recognizing that all is not well, he works with his fellow teens to uncover what really is going on. Not the world's most gripping novel, but a fun read and good for middle school readers.
Matt is flipping through a magazine near the check-outs when his mom gets the news: their family is over their limit. Humiliations aside, this is Bad News. By the time they've gotten home from the store, there's already a black limo outside, waiting to take 13-year-old Matt to the workhouse to earn the money his family needs to get them back under their government-mandated limit. Luckily, Matt gets assigned to the Top Floor, where the smartest kids have the most swank accommodations and most interesting work. The down side to being smart, though, is that Matt knows there's something up about the work that they're doing, and Matt is just the computer hacker to find out what.
Government intrudes on ordinary lives by imposing financial Limits on people and strictly enforcing those limits. Theoretically there are plans that can be worked out, four options people can take to get their budgets back under the Limit, but Matt's family is only given the Workhouse option. There's not much discussion of what sort of work Matt is doing or who it's for, or what happens in the normal workhouses. What we're left with is the shadowy, all-seeing, all-monitoring government that clearly has a purpose in mind for the workhouse kids, and a reason for keeping their parents in debt.
With the current economy being what it is, I can see this terrifying middle school readers (I'd put the interest around grades 7-10). The tone somehow reminds me of Margaret Peterson Haddix, with comparisons to ... hmm. Carbon Diaries for rationing/government monitoring of commodities, Rash for enforced employment to pay [economic/societal] debts, For the Win for computer time as business, The Sky Inside for similar tone in teen boy character.
Government intrudes on ordinary lives by imposing financial Limits on people and strictly enforcing those limits. Theoretically there are plans that can be worked out, four options people can take to get their budgets back under the Limit, but Matt's family is only given the Workhouse option. There's not much discussion of what sort of work Matt is doing or who it's for, or what happens in the normal workhouses. What we're left with is the shadowy, all-seeing, all-monitoring government that clearly has a purpose in mind for the workhouse kids, and a reason for keeping their parents in debt.
With the current economy being what it is, I can see this terrifying middle school readers (I'd put the interest around grades 7-10). The tone somehow reminds me of Margaret Peterson Haddix, with comparisons to ... hmm. Carbon Diaries for rationing/government monitoring of commodities, Rash for enforced employment to pay [economic/societal] debts, For the Win for computer time as business, The Sky Inside for similar tone in teen boy character.
The Limit is about a world where every family has a financial limit. If the family passes "the limit", their oldest child is forced into a work camp where they can work off the debt.
I liked The Limit, and think it would be a good book for middle grade students to begin reading dystopian books.
I liked The Limit, and think it would be a good book for middle grade students to begin reading dystopian books.
The Limit is a Big Brother outlook on life in the future. The government has designed a system where each family's expense account is kept track of. If a family goes over, then the oldest child is taken to a government facility where they must work until the debt is paid off. Matt, the main character, is a genius at math and his family exceeds the limit and he is gone. What follows is Matt and his new friends trying to figure out the system and finding out some pretty dangerous things. I liked the math aspect because it showed a different type of character (although I can't claim to understand any part of the math). It is a quick read and the kids who like books about the future will enjoy this.
I read this for a school project, and I had never heard of it before. It was a fantastic story with an amazing premise! Really makes you think about how much money you spend...
Sometimes, you walk into the book store, take a chance on a book that's sitting on the clearance table, and discover a gem. While this was true for books such as [b:A Million Suns|10345927|A Million Suns (Across the Universe, #2)|Beth Revis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330214586s/10345927.jpg|15248718], [b:Between Shades of Grey|18133158|Between Shades of Grey|Ruta Sepetys|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|10870318], and [b:Blood on My Hands|7499620|Blood on My Hands (Thrillogy, #2)|Todd Strasser|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320529589s/7499620.jpg|9664069] (all of which I highly recommend), [b:The Limit|7327325|The Limit|Kristen Landon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331275921s/7327325.jpg|8944719] sadly lacked that gem quality.
It wasn't a bad book. The idea was original - every family has a debt limit, and once they exceed it their oldest child is sent away to a work camp to help earn back the family's money.
The main problem was that the scenario just didn't seem all that dystopian. Sure, the work camp had sinister undertones, and there was some suspicious stuff going on behind the scenes, but for the most part it seemed to be a pretty cushy lifestyle.
Plus, everyone in this alternate reality seemed wildly irresponsible.
It was a good book, sure, just not the gem I was hoping for.
It wasn't a bad book. The idea was original - every family has a debt limit, and once they exceed it their oldest child is sent away to a work camp to help earn back the family's money.
The main problem was that the scenario just didn't seem all that dystopian. Sure, the work camp had sinister undertones, and there was some suspicious stuff going on behind the scenes, but for the most part it seemed to be a pretty cushy lifestyle.
Plus, everyone in this alternate reality seemed wildly irresponsible.
It was a good book, sure, just not the gem I was hoping for.
one word to describe this book would be AWESOMESAUCE.
This book is part of my ebook detox aka no-laptop?-resort-to-physical-book phase I'm currently in right now. Now, this may seem like a children's book but if you are, like me, someone who looks for signs and meanings in every happening in the book, you may see that this story is really happening around us.
It's basic, mother and father thinks they have enough money so they go around on spending spree and then turns out that they went over their limit so the government takes their kid to work for them while the parents sorts out their mess, meanwhile, turns out the government is doing evil things to the kids and blahblahblah I should probably stop or I'll tell the whole story here.
anyway, the thing i hate with this book is, here you are, super excited about the ending but it's like the climax took so long to get at, there are no whatever-you-call-that-after-climax-part and then the story ends. what I mean to say is, the ending is such a let down but why would you let that stop you from reading the book? :))
This book is part of my ebook detox aka no-laptop?-resort-to-physical-book phase I'm currently in right now. Now, this may seem like a children's book but if you are, like me, someone who looks for signs and meanings in every happening in the book, you may see that this story is really happening around us.
It's basic, mother and father thinks they have enough money so they go around on spending spree and then turns out that they went over their limit so the government takes their kid to work for them while the parents sorts out their mess, meanwhile, turns out the government is doing evil things to the kids and blahblahblah I should probably stop or I'll tell the whole story here.
anyway, the thing i hate with this book is, here you are, super excited about the ending but it's like the climax took so long to get at, there are no whatever-you-call-that-after-climax-part and then the story ends. what I mean to say is, the ending is such a let down but why would you let that stop you from reading the book? :))
Checked this out for a possible read for a middle school boy I am tutoring. With that said I think it is a great read for middle schoolers, boys or girls. The idea of the government putting a cap on the amount of personal debt a family can have is interesting and the consequences that follow. Very quick read and action packed. Highly recommend for middle schoolers.