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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I gave this 4.5 five stars because just wow. Search up trigger warning before reading but wow. This is so underrated. It’s really heartbreaking but at the same time that’s what makes it good.
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
although this book has an important message and story to tell, i was pretty disappointed.
the book had a huge pacing issue and i think that’s what’s caused all these other issues i found while reading. everything happened so fast and we kept moving locations so i felt like i had no time to emotionally connect with the characters or have our main character connect with any of her friends.
i found this author over explained at lot, instead of just showing or just telling she did both which was annoying as a reader bc i know this information you don’t have to tell me twice. i found her to info-dump a lot which bc also bugged me, all our backstory’s and the history of the mainland were told through secondary character monologues.
the story has too many subplots that never went into depth or explored and characters introduced for no reason to never appear again. the last 10 pages introduced a “rebellion” type storyline through the network then Lima was threatened with jail time that went nowhere. overall there were many loose ends no tied up which was not only annoying but left me as the reader feeling unsatisfied.
one storyline i didn’t like was rowan’s, like all the characters he didn’t have much depth and that showed through Lima telling him about her sexual assault and him trying (and succeeding) to sleep with her not even 5 seconds after. the characters had no chemistry and i’m not sure if that was the point but it didn’t land for me.
if this book was written in third person i think it would’ve been better, as well as the structure and plot being more organized. to me it was messy and the writing was anything special. although she had some hard hitting quotes and lines the whole story felt lacklustre and seemed to drag a bit at the end.
i really wanted to like this book since it’s clearly important but this being the authors first book makes a lot of sense. trial and error, maybe her next book will be better but until then i wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to my friends if they wanted something deep and she’s hitting. a book like this is supposed to make me cry and pull at my heart strings but there wasn’t enough action (i.e maybe try and rebel? focus on the ending of the book not where it started from)
I so wanted to love this book. I was drawn into it by the premise and the author, who is the executive director of FOLD (the Festival of Literary Diversity), advocating for more diversity in literature which is something I fully believe in and support.
The story is of a world divided into two, the white Mainlanders and the black Gutter people. The story opens with Elimina, a project case baby who was born in the Gutter and given to a Mainland mother, being brought to an academy where Gutter people must learn to work for the Mainlanders to pay off debt left by ancestors due to manipulation and thievery done by the Mainlanders.
The story is a coming of age about a girl who is resilient through all her hardships and traumatic experiences. The story was strong, the dystopian world (which is not far from being reality) was so well built up and explained within the story. I just felt it was more of a YA novel than adult fiction. Upon reading the synopsis, I fully expected to cry, but I could not get attached to the characters (aside from David, I love David) due to the seemingly juvenile writing. Looking at goodreads, I do see it is tagged both as a YA novel and adult fiction, but I feel like this story would do better in the right audience which is YA. This is a strong story and a great learning tool for young people, especially those with privilege, to learn from and do their part, which is listening to and empathizing with and making voices of minorities stronger and louder, but I just feel like I wasn’t the right audience for it.
This will not be the last of Jael Richardson that I read as she has a gift for storytelling, however, due to the fact that I tend to stray away from YA fiction, this particular novel just was not for me.
The story is of a world divided into two, the white Mainlanders and the black Gutter people. The story opens with Elimina, a project case baby who was born in the Gutter and given to a Mainland mother, being brought to an academy where Gutter people must learn to work for the Mainlanders to pay off debt left by ancestors due to manipulation and thievery done by the Mainlanders.
The story is a coming of age about a girl who is resilient through all her hardships and traumatic experiences. The story was strong, the dystopian world (which is not far from being reality) was so well built up and explained within the story. I just felt it was more of a YA novel than adult fiction. Upon reading the synopsis, I fully expected to cry, but I could not get attached to the characters (aside from David, I love David) due to the seemingly juvenile writing. Looking at goodreads, I do see it is tagged both as a YA novel and adult fiction, but I feel like this story would do better in the right audience which is YA. This is a strong story and a great learning tool for young people, especially those with privilege, to learn from and do their part, which is listening to and empathizing with and making voices of minorities stronger and louder, but I just feel like I wasn’t the right audience for it.
This will not be the last of Jael Richardson that I read as she has a gift for storytelling, however, due to the fact that I tend to stray away from YA fiction, this particular novel just was not for me.
I chose this book because I’ve been seeing a few reviews going around lately, and wanted to see what the hype was about. I can definitely say I get it now, as this book is certainly moving, and touches on some important topics.
This story takes place in a fictional world where there is a long history of colonialism and racism. The ‘Mainlanders’ came and took over the land of the Sossi People, eventually segregating them and dubbing them ‘Gutter People’. The Sossi People are forced to pay a life of dept to the Mainlnders, where ‘Redemption Freedom’ is the ultimate goal, yet rarely achieved.
Even though this book is based in a fictional world, a lot of it can be compared to our world in the past and today. The author tackles some very difficult topics, but does it in a way which was so captivating, that it held my interest from the beginning right until the end!
What I liked most about this book was the main character Elimina. She was such a strong female lead, and overall was really likeable! It was great that the book was written in a way where we could watch Elimina grow from a child, to a young lady.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for anyone who wants to read something with a bit more of a heavy theme.
This story takes place in a fictional world where there is a long history of colonialism and racism. The ‘Mainlanders’ came and took over the land of the Sossi People, eventually segregating them and dubbing them ‘Gutter People’. The Sossi People are forced to pay a life of dept to the Mainlnders, where ‘Redemption Freedom’ is the ultimate goal, yet rarely achieved.
Even though this book is based in a fictional world, a lot of it can be compared to our world in the past and today. The author tackles some very difficult topics, but does it in a way which was so captivating, that it held my interest from the beginning right until the end!
What I liked most about this book was the main character Elimina. She was such a strong female lead, and overall was really likeable! It was great that the book was written in a way where we could watch Elimina grow from a child, to a young lady.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for anyone who wants to read something with a bit more of a heavy theme.
dark
emotional
reflective
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
Read for book club #2. I spent a lot of time after reading this looking at reviews and marketing - it read so much like a YA dystopian to me, but it wasn't marketed as YA, and I was trying to figure out why. I enjoyed it, but it's not a subtle book. The author clearly has some Things To Say about society and racism and classism and they're laid out very clearly.
Oof. This was great.
Supposed to be dystopia but didn’t seem too different from colonial constructs throughout time (especially reminded me of Residential Schools and Pass system). Reads as YA.
Supposed to be dystopia but didn’t seem too different from colonial constructs throughout time (especially reminded me of Residential Schools and Pass system). Reads as YA.