Inside Out
Inside Outby Maria V. Snyder
I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution. (goodreads.com)
Ok, first? WOW! Holy wow! Brilliantly fantastic book!Second? A myriad of things that lead up to the review - I think my biggest regret from BEA (and yes, I still have to write my recap posts!) was that I was unable to get the Spy Glass ARC from the Harlequin Teen booth. Why didn't I? As it was likely one of the books I desperately wanted the most? Well mostly because after waiting in line on the Wednesday to "meet" Maria V. Snyder, I was so unimpressed by the mob and lack of organization for their 4-author signings that the next day I wasn't about to wait in that mess again and did something else on my schedule. Turns out the Thursday signing wasn't nearly as messy as the day before and I missed out getting the one book I wanted most. Argh! But I did come away from that trip with a signed copy of this book, so it was all good.My problem? I didn't want to read this book. I have been so enchanted by Snyder's other two fantasy trilogies that the thought of some sort of sci-fi, dystopian, NEW thing terrified me. I didn't want to read it and hate it. I didn't want to hate anything by Maria V. Snyder and I was scared that this would be the one thing I did hate. I am not a sci-fi fan. I didn't know much about this book but the summary didn't really catch me.Then I read this post by Rhiannon over the weekend and it made me look twice at the signed book sitting on a table in my hallway. Not only do I think Rhiannon is awesome but I truly love her honest reviews of books and when I read that she had the same trepidation about starting the book as I did I certainly perked up.So, since I have about 5 books going right now, all that have been put aside for the other and have been unable to really focus on a book in the last 2 weeks (I blame the extreme heat wave we've been having), I thought, why not try Inside Out and see what I thought?People, I read this book in a day. It would have been just a span of a few hours had I not put it down a couple of times to go spray myself, my husband and the dogs with the hose and do other things around the house (did I mention the heat?) but I stayed up way past when my body told me I should be asleep to finish this book.It was fantastic.I loved Trella from the start. I loved the secondary characters, I loved Cog, I loved Logan and Anne-Jade, I loved Riley and Doctor Lamont. Most of all, I loved Sheepy.The story reminded me of Incarceron, where people are living in a contained facility where it is all they know and there are rumors and myths about a place Outside this facility. The Upper and Lower classes were distinct and interesting to learn about and learn how ignorant of each other they really are. I want to know why these people are living in this facility, how did it come to that? What's on the Outside. Who are the Controllers? And I think I'm going to have to wait for the second book to learn more about that! (March 2011 is so far away!)One thing that Rhiannon commented on in her post was the blasé reaction that the Scrubs had to torture and "recycling" of human life. (Rather than go to jail, people are killed and sent to Chompers where they are chomped up and used as fertilizer. Ick.) Whereas I think the torture parts were slightly breezed over without reaction, I think I understand the lack of reaction to people being killed and executed. If you've grown up with this always being the way, the rules, it sort of desensitizes you to the horror we, the reader would feel about it if it happened to us. This is all the Scrubs know. It's a way of life for them, my guess is as normal as if someone got sent to jail for being bad. Rather than jail, due to lack of space, they are just recycled. Yes it is harsh, but I get the feeling because they don't know any other reaction to punishment it's normal to them. They feared it, but were able to continue on with their lives with little grief because their situation doesn't have time for it.I don't know if any of that made sense. I've been writing this post all day with a migraine and keep coming back to it. Oops. Forgive me.Maria V. Snyder did not let me down with this novel. Not only that, there is a minimal focus on romance as I was concerned there would be being a Harlequin novel. I didn't have much luck with the first one I read (see, The Iron King review). But this was subtle Maria V. Snyder romance mixed in with an enchanting cast of characters that you see grow and relationships form and because of that you form relationships with them as well. Something happened at the climax of the novel that shocked the heck out of me and I am still blinking rapidly because of it. I am still trying to believe that it actually happened and dealing with grief for a character. It took me by surprise it wasn't anything that I was expecting or contemplating would be the climax. Well done. Mean, but well done!I shall have my Spy Glass by the fall to complete the Glass trilogy and then have to wait until March 2011 for the sequel to this novel to come out. I can't wait to see what Maria V. Snyder publishes next. She's up there with Sarah Addison Allen I think with the creation of characters so likable you want them to be real and your friends forever.Inside Out series
- Inside Out
- Outside In (March 2011)