Monday, January 18, 2010

Review of Inside Out by 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? Not like it's all that dangerous - the only neck I risk is my own. Until I accidently start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution. I should have just said no...

I'm Trella. I'm mean. And I care about nobody.

I really wanted to love this book because I'm a Maria Snyder fan as well as a dystopian literature freak. One of the biggest problems was the main character Trella. Simply put, I just did not like her. She was whiny, annoying,and mean. This made it nearly impossible for me to really
get into her story. I just didn't care what would happen to her.

Another issue that was the setting of Inside Out. I found the authors descriptions of the setting to be confusing and completely overwritten. I had a very difficult time picturing any of the scenes in my
head. After a while I just started skimming over the descriptions so that I could get to the actual story. The setting descriptions were just too headache inducing.

How was the story? Well it left much to be desired for this dystopia fan. The ending was such a cliche. I kept praying that the book wouldn't end the way that I was expecting it to. The ending just sucked! I'd love to discuss it more but I don't want to include any spoilers in this post.

Overall, Inside Out was a big disappointment. I felt like I was reading a combination of other dystopian books as opposed to one unique story. A little bit of Logan's Run mixed in with maybe a little bit of Robert Heinlein, Inside Out brings nothing new to dystopian literature.

7 comments:

  1. I had high hopes for this book, but now I'm not so sure.

    Thanks for the review! :)

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  2. Too bad it didn't turn out to be good for you, I think I will still have to check it out though. Thanks for the review! :)

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  3. Thank you for your honest review. It sounds like this wasn't this author's best work.

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  4. Wow - the comments are really hard to read on this background. The yellow is fine, but the white is impossible.

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  5. I had really high expectations from this one. I am Maria Snyder fan too :)Love her books but looks like this one isn't all that wonderful. Will wait for the library copy

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  6. Well, I did say that I liked your honest reviews! Still, I'm definitely going to be checking this one out anyway. I love Maria Snyder, and I'm going to hold out hope that I'll like it a bit more.

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  7. Yes, very interesting how opinions differ. I think this book appeals less to those who are fans of dystopian literature, and more to the fantasy crowd, of which I am a part. Nice, well-thought-out review. I too was occasionally overwhelmed by the descriptions of Inside, yet it didn't exactly bother me.

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