Inside Out

by Maria V. Snyder

Grade: Good
Story: Trella is a worker who lives in a big box thing. She starts a revolution accidentally, against the Uppers (who live--guess where?--in the upper part of the big box thing).

It's a bit like a mix between The Hunger Games and Incarceron. But not quite as good as either. Not as utterly gripping as Hunger Games, and not as cool as Incarceron. But still good. I loved how little things were explained at first--we just got plopped right into the whole thing. However, there were a couple times things were explained when I wish they weren't. Like when Trella mentioned how old she was in years. There's absolutely no reason for her to use the old-fashioned terminology except for our sakes. It would be a bit like me saying, "Year 2010, or 1998 by the Julian calendar." (It wouldn't be 1998, but you know what I mean.) Also the time when she said that Cogon was like a brother to her--but even if she had learnt what a brother was from Riley, she still wouldn't understand the concept of family enough to explain it that way, I think.

Speaking of Riley, he reminded me a tiny bit of ... well, Riley. From Buffy. i.e. Handsome all that, but a bit boring. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of Romance stuff.

I'll read the next one, I guess, but not wait in eager anticipation, counting down the months or anything.


P.S. Oh, and another heroine who doesn't want to have kids because she doesn't want to bring another person into this horrible world? Yeah... I'm getting a bit tired of that. Thankfully there did seem to be some hint that she might change her mind about that. I forget where, and maybe I misread it.
Also the contraceptive stuff. Sigh. I still have to get used to the fact that the whole world thinks it's marvellous and wonderful.