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trkravtin's review against another edition
Laser focused text portrays a story that while sleight in length, is powerful and imaginative. Depicting an alternative reality of the near future dominated by mass corporate culture, where everything is sacrificed for the retail economy, the reader is drawn into a teenage girl’s attempt to best the system. What happens to her and how she finds her way to her own future, rather than accepting the one that is predetermined makes for compelling reading. There is much here for lively discussion.
jesscinco's review against another edition
5.0
Probably the most affecting book I've read all year. It's a dry, cutting allegory for what it's like to be part of the working poor, and how much control big companies exert over their customers and employees.
molly_dettmann's review against another edition
2.0
Yeah, nothing spectacular about this bizarre consumerist dystopian novel. There was little to no character development, the plot seemed random, and the ending was rushed and unfinished imo.
annoeing's review against another edition
2.0
What was that???? I just read a dystopia that's set in like Aldi or something. No, literally the plot of the story revolves around a girl that lives in a futuristic world where everyone is sent to work in one of the only two supermarket that exists. And these supermarkets are like stocked with normal stuff and propaganda which is weird, which i guess is cool, but what?????????? The author was clear and everything, like we can definitely feel the dystopian/sci-fi vibe from those pages, but man surely there could've been better things to write about than stocking dinosaur toys on supermarket shelves?? I am so confused.
This book is actually like really short, i just took so long to read it because i forgot about it half way through and went to read other books instead.
This book is actually like really short, i just took so long to read it because i forgot about it half way through and went to read other books instead.
itsmytuberculosis's review against another edition
2.0
in the year 2017: oh wow! would you look at that! another book on the evils of large corporations and their toxic effects on degrading the individual and how capitalism eventually leads to degrading the lower class! what a good read! I'm so glad people are noticing the perils of capitalism!
also in the year 2017:
also in the year 2017:
haia_929's review against another edition
2.0
This is a trimmed down version of my review, to view the full review visit The Book Ramble.
This book was provided by Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.
When Zoe Zindleman's school closes she's fast tracked to graduation and gets a job at megacorporation AllMART. What follows is not much of a plot at all and is mostly just a string of random events that don't really amount to much. Woolston sets up what could be a really interesting and meaningful dystopia, but she lets it all build up to nothing.
I didn't enjoy this book at all. The plot was lacking, in that there was basically no plot. There was no character development or depth displayed at any point in the entire novel. There was entirely too much time spent on building a world that is entirely too similar to our own world to necessitate spending the entire book building the world and then doing nothing with it.
We learn about AllMART and see some of their evil practices but we don't ever see Zoe working against this or trying to make any change to her world. She just stays in the same situation, same state, without any change for the whole book. There was no motivation for me to actually read anything in this book except for the mistaken hope that the book would actually start to have a plot.
I can't say much beyond that because there isn't much more to comment on. This was hardly a book, it didn't have a plot at all.
This book was provided by Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review.
When Zoe Zindleman's school closes she's fast tracked to graduation and gets a job at megacorporation AllMART. What follows is not much of a plot at all and is mostly just a string of random events that don't really amount to much. Woolston sets up what could be a really interesting and meaningful dystopia, but she lets it all build up to nothing.
I didn't enjoy this book at all. The plot was lacking, in that there was basically no plot. There was no character development or depth displayed at any point in the entire novel. There was entirely too much time spent on building a world that is entirely too similar to our own world to necessitate spending the entire book building the world and then doing nothing with it.
We learn about AllMART and see some of their evil practices but we don't ever see Zoe working against this or trying to make any change to her world. She just stays in the same situation, same state, without any change for the whole book. There was no motivation for me to actually read anything in this book except for the mistaken hope that the book would actually start to have a plot.
I can't say much beyond that because there isn't much more to comment on. This was hardly a book, it didn't have a plot at all.
nodalec's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh. Okay, so the pros first. It's a short book and and prose is quirky. In fact, the writing was good enough that I was willing to finish the book despite the fact that I really disliked EVERYTHING about it.
The cons: everything else. There is absolutely no character development, there is no plot, the climax is strange, and most events seem to happen randomly, many with no relation to the character at all. I think a lot of this is based on the idea that Woolston tried incredibly hard to make a main character who was truly not special, and in a sense, succeeded. But it makes for an uninteresting plot.
My biggest problem though (well, one of two) was the world building. I think there's a premise of overcrowding in the world (there's a huge emphasis on "sexual responsibility"), but the world doesn't feel overcrowded. The basis seems to be that people are slaves to consumerism and the book comes of as SUPER anti-libertarian, which...i mean, is fine I guess, but then no one acts the right way.
EVERYONE seems to be poor except for an elite few, so I don't know who the target audience is for their low-quality marketing. The ads that are interspersed in the book are painfully shoddy (very 1950s, not indicative of what ad culture is like today, much less in a society that's supposed to be COMPLETELY based around it).It doesn't make sense that Zoe floats from place to place in Allmart(stocking one day, pets one day, guns another), which doesn't make sense either because a truly good salesperson needs expert knowledge in their area of what and where things are.
There's a weird amount of misogyny in the newscasts (ridiculously high amounts of harassment) that no one seems to care/notice despite the fact that there is nothing else in the society to indicate that harassment/misogyny is considered culturally appropriate (most people that are mentioned in power are females too). These are just a few examples, but almost everything that happens in Allmart doesn't make sense if you've read anything at all about marketing (or managing people, for that matter).
It might make A LITTLE sense if Allmart had no competition and was a monopoly for everything that you bought, but it has a direct competitor next door, which completely changes how a business would run.
The second GIGANTIC problem with this book is the complete lack of a reason to read it. There is no character development and no plot. There's some stuff about tuna, the newscasts...none of them actually add to plot or to character development. And Zoe herself...would be a really interesting character if she was supposed to be a robot who was programmed to act human. Then this book, written the exact same way, might have been worth one more store. But she wasn't.
.
The entire book seems to be a vehicle for the author to show how much they think libertarianism wouldn't work and how awful consumerism is but then forgot to add a plot or characters worth caring about.
tl;dr: it's the kind of book I'd recommend to someone to show how not to do a plot or character development. Otherwise, there is a ton of dystopian lit that is far superior.
The cons: everything else. There is absolutely no character development, there is no plot, the climax is strange, and most events seem to happen randomly, many with no relation to the character at all. I think a lot of this is based on the idea that Woolston tried incredibly hard to make a main character who was truly not special, and in a sense, succeeded. But it makes for an uninteresting plot.
My biggest problem though (well, one of two) was the world building. I think there's a premise of overcrowding in the world (there's a huge emphasis on "sexual responsibility"), but the world doesn't feel overcrowded. The basis seems to be that people are slaves to consumerism and the book comes of as SUPER anti-libertarian, which...i mean, is fine I guess, but then no one acts the right way.
EVERYONE seems to be poor except for an elite few, so I don't know who the target audience is for their low-quality marketing. The ads that are interspersed in the book are painfully shoddy (very 1950s, not indicative of what ad culture is like today, much less in a society that's supposed to be COMPLETELY based around it).It doesn't make sense that Zoe floats from place to place in Allmart(stocking one day, pets one day, guns another), which doesn't make sense either because a truly good salesperson needs expert knowledge in their area of what and where things are.
There's a weird amount of misogyny in the newscasts (ridiculously high amounts of harassment) that no one seems to care/notice despite the fact that there is nothing else in the society to indicate that harassment/misogyny is considered culturally appropriate (most people that are mentioned in power are females too). These are just a few examples, but almost everything that happens in Allmart doesn't make sense if you've read anything at all about marketing (or managing people, for that matter).
It might make A LITTLE sense if Allmart had no competition and was a monopoly for everything that you bought, but it has a direct competitor next door, which completely changes how a business would run.
The second GIGANTIC problem with this book is the complete lack of a reason to read it. There is no character development and no plot. There's some stuff about tuna, the newscasts...none of them actually add to plot or to character development. And Zoe herself...would be a really interesting character if she was supposed to be a robot who was programmed to act human. Then this book, written the exact same way, might have been worth one more store. But she wasn't.
Spoiler
Zoe has been taking a drug that makes her more complacent, more obedient, less sexual, and she stops about halfway through the book. But...there's no change. Except that she cries more. But her thoughts don't change, her actions don't change...it was a completely meaningless act that did not matter, except to show how awful this world was to the author.The entire book seems to be a vehicle for the author to show how much they think libertarianism wouldn't work and how awful consumerism is but then forgot to add a plot or characters worth caring about.
tl;dr: it's the kind of book I'd recommend to someone to show how not to do a plot or character development. Otherwise, there is a ton of dystopian lit that is far superior.
pinteeth's review against another edition
5.0
You know those books that kinda change your life? I have read this one upward of 5 times and every time it's just as beautiful and just as tragic. It creates a not-far-off landscape with echoes from across the centuries. I recommend it to Everyone, on the grounds that it's so worth it.
taniplea's review against another edition
4.0
I can't really describe what this book was like. It was weird, but a good weird. I didn't understand some things and I wish it had been longer, with more details, but I think that is one of the points of the story. Some things were only hinted at and never fully talked about.
littleelfman's review against another edition
4.0
A brilliant and bleak depiction of consumerism take to its extreme (so not a whole lot further than we currently know it!)
If you like M.T. Anderson's Feed (which you definitely need to read!), then you'll enjoy this too! It also reminded me a bit of Brave New World where at times you feel like you're being given a tour of the world that is only slightly different from the one you know.
A quote from it that sums up the ominous machine that is ALLMART, when Zoe is contemplating making the customer happy:
"Wanting is only human. Humans are only wants. My purpose to see tiny seeds of wanting that I can magnify and satisfy. The, because I am human too, I will want stuff. The cycle is so beautiful. I will belong."
Creeps me out, makes me think.
If you like M.T. Anderson's Feed (which you definitely need to read!), then you'll enjoy this too! It also reminded me a bit of Brave New World where at times you feel like you're being given a tour of the world that is only slightly different from the one you know.
A quote from it that sums up the ominous machine that is ALLMART, when Zoe is contemplating making the customer happy:
"Wanting is only human. Humans are only wants. My purpose to see tiny seeds of wanting that I can magnify and satisfy. The, because I am human too, I will want stuff. The cycle is so beautiful. I will belong."
Creeps me out, makes me think.