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A review by readthesparrow
Generation Annihilation by Tracy Hewitt Meyer
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Oh boy. Where do I start?
Let’s go with the obvious answer and say the beginning.
The beginning is strong. Our protagonist, Shaun, has just committed murder via arson. Shaun does this in a bid to protect his mother, who has been abused by her husband for over a decade; despite severely injuring and almost killing her a few times, he's gotten away with the abuse due to being a cop. After burning the family home down with his sleeping stepfather inside, Shaun flees to his grandfather’s old hunting cabin to lay low.
I liked this beginning! The stakes are high, and Shaun quickly becomes a protagonist I’m rooting for. I especially liked the way Shaun handles his mental health, as he used breathing exercises and other coping skills to handle the stress. The tension in this section was good, too—Shaun’s personal life was a focus and the setting, an almost completely abandoned town, was eerily intriguing. Honestly, the only reason this book reaches two stars for me is because of this decent beginning.
However, once the actual plot of the book began, the book nosedived for me. The pacing and plot are a mess.
Shaun is kidnapped by a doctor, drugged, and kept tied up in a room. Most of the plot is delivered via either people monologuing at Shaun, telling him things that, quite frankly, they have no reason to tell him. The villain is way too willing to explain what she's doing and why for absolutely no reason, and at a certain point, it gets very repetitive. Like, yes, I get it--the bad guy is doing lobotomies because her grandfather did them and she's mad she got bullied in med school.
Eventually, Shaun gets moved to a table where he sits, paralyzed, with three other teens. The plot is then continued to be delivered via conversations around a table, which is marginally better, but still a struggle to get through after a while. Another reviewer (brittanylee0302) described the plot as being "characters just [sitting] at a table chatting [and] slipp[ing] in [and] out of consciousness." I can't put it into better words, because, yeah. That's pretty much all it is.
There are a few chapters where we POV hop into another character's head (usually into the bad guy's head or into Cassidy's head), but these chapters usually just re-iterate information we already know. Honestly, I don't know why Shaun is the main character, not Cassidy; she's got a way more interesting backstory than him, and if we'd followed her, we wouldn't be sitting at a table for most of the plot.
Once the table kids finally decide to escape and there's actually some action, the plot gets a little better, but then takes an unfortunate left into "Very Outdated YA Vibes" zone with the introduction of the other escapees, who have all named themselves after the medications they used to take. I get the vibes, but these feel like teens from a very different era than the current one.
Speaking of outdated YA vibes, the whole book reads like something that was written in the early 2000s, and not in a good way, especially considering the villains.
One of the villains, the man in charge of administering medicine and menial labor, falls directly into one of my most disliked tropes:the big, mentally disabled guy who serves the actual bad guy, and usually has some kind of third-act turnaround. This is an extremely dated trope which is made worse by the fact that it is made explicit (with some on-page assault) that he sexually abuses the teens in his care. The doctor, too, has physical differences that are pointed out a few times.
Meanwhile, while most of our protagonists deal with some form of mental illness, none of them are disabled, and it is heavily hinted at several times that these mental illnesses are entirely misdiagnosed.
For all my issues with YA, the push for better representation and sensitivity isn't one of them. This books reads like one that was written before conversations about representation in YA became what it is today.
I won't get into the ending because, frankly, it's boring and predictable(burning down the asylum? very original) and it hints at a sequel I seriously doubt anyone will want.
The main plot that is revealed is thatthere is a grand conspiracy across the USA to funnel troubled teens into what is, essentially, a mad doctor study with two goals: eradicate the current generation and perfect lobotomies in order to prevent teens from being troubled.
Here's the thing: the idea that parents and guardians are willing to, essentially, send their children to a living horror in order to "fix" them isn't impossible. Wilderness camps exist. The issue here, for me, lies in the execution.
The idea of "eradicating" the current generation (dubbed "Generation Annihilation") is almost throw-away; it's stated several times that it's one of the goals of the study, but how that will be accomplished with a grand total of three people on staff is never explored, and frankly, seems like it only exists because it makes for a killer title.
The kids are kept via a drug that makes them extremely thirsty and unable to move; however, they are never fed and rarely provided water. How on earth are all these kids alive? Some of them have been kept in this paralyzed state for months. The second the logistics of this drug are considered, the idea of the drug starts to immediately crumble.
The author is a social worker, and I presume that has something to do with the themes and writing of this book. I'm not the expert on the topic that she is, so I'm not going to make any statements about the real world situation of teens in the system. In terms of Generation Annihilation, however, I felt the handling of mental health, physical difference, disability, and commentary on the system and wilderness programs were not well-executed.
Let’s go with the obvious answer and say the beginning.
The beginning is strong. Our protagonist, Shaun, has just committed murder via arson. Shaun does this in a bid to protect his mother, who has been abused by her husband for over a decade; despite severely injuring and almost killing her a few times, he's gotten away with the abuse due to being a cop. After burning the family home down with his sleeping stepfather inside, Shaun flees to his grandfather’s old hunting cabin to lay low.
I liked this beginning! The stakes are high, and Shaun quickly becomes a protagonist I’m rooting for. I especially liked the way Shaun handles his mental health, as he used breathing exercises and other coping skills to handle the stress. The tension in this section was good, too—Shaun’s personal life was a focus and the setting, an almost completely abandoned town, was eerily intriguing. Honestly, the only reason this book reaches two stars for me is because of this decent beginning.
However, once the actual plot of the book began, the book nosedived for me. The pacing and plot are a mess.
Shaun is kidnapped by a doctor, drugged, and kept tied up in a room. Most of the plot is delivered via either people monologuing at Shaun, telling him things that, quite frankly, they have no reason to tell him. The villain is way too willing to explain what she's doing and why for absolutely no reason, and at a certain point, it gets very repetitive. Like, yes, I get it--the bad guy is doing lobotomies because her grandfather did them and she's mad she got bullied in med school.
Eventually, Shaun gets moved to a table where he sits, paralyzed, with three other teens. The plot is then continued to be delivered via conversations around a table, which is marginally better, but still a struggle to get through after a while. Another reviewer (brittanylee0302) described the plot as being "characters just [sitting] at a table chatting [and] slipp[ing] in [and] out of consciousness." I can't put it into better words, because, yeah. That's pretty much all it is.
There are a few chapters where we POV hop into another character's head (usually into the bad guy's head or into Cassidy's head), but these chapters usually just re-iterate information we already know. Honestly, I don't know why Shaun is the main character, not Cassidy; she's got a way more interesting backstory than him, and if we'd followed her, we wouldn't be sitting at a table for most of the plot.
Once the table kids finally decide to escape and there's actually some action, the plot gets a little better, but then takes an unfortunate left into "Very Outdated YA Vibes" zone with the introduction of the other escapees, who have all named themselves after the medications they used to take. I get the vibes, but these feel like teens from a very different era than the current one.
Speaking of outdated YA vibes, the whole book reads like something that was written in the early 2000s, and not in a good way, especially considering the villains.
One of the villains, the man in charge of administering medicine and menial labor, falls directly into one of my most disliked tropes:
Meanwhile, while most of our protagonists deal with some form of mental illness, none of them are disabled, and it is heavily hinted at several times that these mental illnesses are entirely misdiagnosed.
For all my issues with YA, the push for better representation and sensitivity isn't one of them. This books reads like one that was written before conversations about representation in YA became what it is today.
I won't get into the ending because, frankly, it's boring and predictable
The main plot that is revealed is that
Here's the thing: the idea that parents and guardians are willing to, essentially, send their children to a living horror in order to "fix" them isn't impossible. Wilderness camps exist. The issue here, for me, lies in the execution.
The idea of "eradicating" the current generation (dubbed "Generation Annihilation") is almost throw-away; it's stated several times that it's one of the goals of the study, but how that will be accomplished with a grand total of three people on staff is never explored, and frankly, seems like it only exists because it makes for a killer title.
The kids are kept via a drug that makes them extremely thirsty and unable to move; however, they are never fed and rarely provided water. How on earth are all these kids alive? Some of them have been kept in this paralyzed state for months. The second the logistics of this drug are considered, the idea of the drug starts to immediately crumble.
The author is a social worker, and I presume that has something to do with the themes and writing of this book. I'm not the expert on the topic that she is, so I'm not going to make any statements about the real world situation of teens in the system. In terms of Generation Annihilation, however, I felt the handling of mental health, physical difference, disability, and commentary on the system and wilderness programs were not well-executed.