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iamajellydoughnut 's review for:
Incarceron
by Catherine Fisher
Thank you, Incarceron, for restoring my faith in YA literature! For the past six months I'd been growing increasingly disillusioned with the YA novels I've been reading. It might have been due to my own poor choice in choosing books to read or it might have been due to a sad lack of exhilaration and depth and gravity and originality and creativity in YA (with the exceptions of Revolution and somewhat Jellicoe Road). Either way, I found myself increasingly drawn towards literary fiction and mystery and horror and their likes. I hated the overwhelming and unstoppable trend of tacky and tired paranormal romance and that notwithstanding, even in YA fantasy and YA contemporary fiction, the same topics being beaten to death over and over again. My YA intake dwindled to maybe 2 books a month as opposed to my previous 15 or so a month... Then, I picked up Incarceron. It'd been in my TBR stack for a year now and I finally got around to reading it, and within a few pages, I was, for the first time in a long time, bowled over and enthralled and raring to keep the pages turning. Why? Incarceron is fantasy done well, a heady mix of originality and infallible tropes that make for a wonderful read.
Incarceron is a book best read with utmost attention. It's chock-full of subtle twists and turns, so much so that I'd liken it to the movie Inception in that you can't expect to understand the story with a short summary. Neither is it a Shyamalan film where disclosure of the twist ending is the satisfaction derived from the entire affair; instead you have to savor each moment, each revelation and development, read the story carefully from beginning to end--and in that order, too--to fully appreciate the complexity and depth that Catherine Fisher has woven into her ambitious story. I love the alternation between Finn's story and Claudia's story: the former, trapped in the nightmarish conditions of the living prison, uncertainty and danger his constant companions, his hopes of escaping as fragile as spun glass, and the latter, brought up in a world of luxury laced with political conspiracies and true intentions hidden behind facades of medieval chivalry and fawning praise, forced to marry a selfish and useless prince, her own wishes eclipsed by the devious plots hatched by her father and other courtiers. Fisher's writing is to be commended as well, as it is straightforward and yet beautiful at times, adept at raising tension and suspense, and describing the settings of both Incarceron and the Outside, and delivering the story at a breakneck speed. The very concept of the story, that of a living and talking and all-seeing prison consisting of vast tracts of lands and mountains and oceans, and an "outside" world that has been purposefully halted in a stasis of the medieval period, is brilliance exemplified. The legends and lore that Fisher created, of Sapphique and his legacy, of the birth of Incarceron, of the very world itself, had me invested in the story and gave a hard-to-achieve sort of depth to Finn's plight, not to mention the fact that the way Fisher makes use of the legends to tie Finn's story with Claudia's inspired in me some moments where I was stuck between disbelief and doubt and nervous anticipation as I waited to see if the developments in the plot were true or yet another false lead courtesy of Catherine Fisher's ingenuity.
And while it was brilliant, Incarceron was not without its flaws. Finn and Claudia and co., while fully fleshed out as characters, were not developed to the point where I truly cared for them. Finn was at times incredibly naive, always, always, always believing the best of people even when the reader is screaming at him that NO, SO AND SO IS OBVIOUSLY UP TO NO GOOD, CAN'T YOU SEE?! It's part of his charm, I guess. And Claudia, as expected because of her upbringing, is spoiled and bratty at times. The casual feminist in me, however, applauds her occasional ruthlessness and rebellion and her defiance of the Queen and her father. I wish the supporting cast had been more developed. I liked how Keiro's current MO strays in the grey area more often than not- is he good or evil? Does he truly care for Finn or is that just watching out for his own skin? I wanted more background on Attia and Jared (what is that drat illness plaguing him, huh?) and Caspar, and I wanted Incarceron to be better explained as a prison and a living entity, but being YA I guess that more details had to be sacrificed for the sake of page count...?
Nevertheless, Incarceron is truly something. Doubtless it is not for everyone; some might find its flaws glaring and unavoidable in lieu of its complexity and enjoyment factor, but personally, I found Incarceron to be a beacon shining brightly in the sea of YA, and I think I'll be happily searching for more like this in the future. Something with complexity and depth and authentic suspense and excellent writing and originality and ambition. Sapphique came out today and I seriously need to get my grubby little hands on it. Now onto The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, which I have a feeling is going to be even better than Incarceron... Heh.
Incarceron is a book best read with utmost attention. It's chock-full of subtle twists and turns, so much so that I'd liken it to the movie Inception in that you can't expect to understand the story with a short summary. Neither is it a Shyamalan film where disclosure of the twist ending is the satisfaction derived from the entire affair; instead you have to savor each moment, each revelation and development, read the story carefully from beginning to end--and in that order, too--to fully appreciate the complexity and depth that Catherine Fisher has woven into her ambitious story. I love the alternation between Finn's story and Claudia's story: the former, trapped in the nightmarish conditions of the living prison, uncertainty and danger his constant companions, his hopes of escaping as fragile as spun glass, and the latter, brought up in a world of luxury laced with political conspiracies and true intentions hidden behind facades of medieval chivalry and fawning praise, forced to marry a selfish and useless prince, her own wishes eclipsed by the devious plots hatched by her father and other courtiers. Fisher's writing is to be commended as well, as it is straightforward and yet beautiful at times, adept at raising tension and suspense, and describing the settings of both Incarceron and the Outside, and delivering the story at a breakneck speed. The very concept of the story, that of a living and talking and all-seeing prison consisting of vast tracts of lands and mountains and oceans, and an "outside" world that has been purposefully halted in a stasis of the medieval period, is brilliance exemplified. The legends and lore that Fisher created, of Sapphique and his legacy, of the birth of Incarceron, of the very world itself, had me invested in the story and gave a hard-to-achieve sort of depth to Finn's plight, not to mention the fact that the way Fisher makes use of the legends to tie Finn's story with Claudia's inspired in me some moments where I was stuck between disbelief and doubt and nervous anticipation as I waited to see if the developments in the plot were true or yet another false lead courtesy of Catherine Fisher's ingenuity.
And while it was brilliant, Incarceron was not without its flaws. Finn and Claudia and co., while fully fleshed out as characters, were not developed to the point where I truly cared for them. Finn was at times incredibly naive, always, always, always believing the best of people even when the reader is screaming at him that NO, SO AND SO IS OBVIOUSLY UP TO NO GOOD, CAN'T YOU SEE?! It's part of his charm, I guess. And Claudia, as expected because of her upbringing, is spoiled and bratty at times. The casual feminist in me, however, applauds her occasional ruthlessness and rebellion and her defiance of the Queen and her father. I wish the supporting cast had been more developed. I liked how Keiro's current MO strays in the grey area more often than not- is he good or evil? Does he truly care for Finn or is that just watching out for his own skin? I wanted more background on Attia and Jared (what is that drat illness plaguing him, huh?) and Caspar, and I wanted Incarceron to be better explained as a prison and a living entity, but being YA I guess that more details had to be sacrificed for the sake of page count...?
Nevertheless, Incarceron is truly something. Doubtless it is not for everyone; some might find its flaws glaring and unavoidable in lieu of its complexity and enjoyment factor, but personally, I found Incarceron to be a beacon shining brightly in the sea of YA, and I think I'll be happily searching for more like this in the future. Something with complexity and depth and authentic suspense and excellent writing and originality and ambition. Sapphique came out today and I seriously need to get my grubby little hands on it. Now onto The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, which I have a feeling is going to be even better than Incarceron... Heh.