Elitist Book Reviews

Young Adult fiction has really evolved from what it used to be. There are a lot more options than there were when I was a kid. It's not just the scope of books that has increased but the depth as well. Authors are examining mature themes that really didn't seem so present years ago. Then again it could just be me, but I really don't remember any YA books that examined the plight of war refugees in dystopian societies. I have to applaud authors like Paolo Bacigalupi for writing books like THE DROWNED CITIES. Teenagers do not like being condescended to in the least and THE DROWNED CITIES offers some very dark, adult themes.

War orphans Mahlia and Mouse spend their days just trying to survive. The two live in a town on the outskirts of the Drowned Cities where armies of child soldiers led by demagogues vie for control of the ruins. They live a stable life but the threat of encroaching war is pervasive. That is, until they cross paths with the genetically engineered war machine named Tool.

So the new trend in YA fiction is "dystopian" and THE DROWNED CITIES has to be one of the most dystopian novels I've read all year. What separates Bacigalupi's companion novel to the award winning SHIP BREAKER from the rest of the dystopian YA fiction is just how real it is. This is a novel that explores the banality of evil and the horrors of war. The thing is, these aren't professional soldiers caught in the meat grinder. These are children. The armies fighting over the sunken remains of America's capitol are composed of kids plucked from the comfort of their homes and bathed in blood and fire. It's sad and disgusting and it's real. Obviously it isn't happening right now in America but it is a fact of life in other places across the globe.

Bacigalupi does a commendable job writing about the dreadfulness of such a pointless conflict. Violence is never once glorified though there is an abundance of it. One of the reasons I felt like THE HUNGER GAMES was such a failure is that it utterly failed to reflect upon the toll of violence upon the characters and the world they inhabited. This is not so with THE DROWNED CITIES. The toll of fighting is apparent from the moment readers are introduced to protagonist Mahlia. This is a girl whose entire life has revolved around, and been demolished by, war. Mahlia is shunned because of her heritage. Her father was a peacekeeper involved in the suppression of warlords throughout the Drowned Cities. Because of his allegiance, Mahlia has had her hand removed by those who consider her a traitor and collaborator.

Mahlia is a strong protagonist. She is a survivor. She quotes and applies the military doctrines of Sun Tzu to her daily life. She has no surviving family and only one friend, fellow orphan Mouse. Mahlia is a strong protagonist but not necessarily likable. She has flaws that are to be expected, but her personality kept me from ever developing a connection. Mouse is the more likable of the two but there is not enough time spent following his perspective for him to develop further than first impressions. Tool, the genetically engineered war machine, is pleasurable to read about because of his unique mindset. Tool was born a slave and a weapon. His genetic makeup consists of all sorts of apex predators and he has only ever known killing. Despite Tool's remarkable nature he also fails to develop past initial impressions. The relationship that develops between Tool and Mahlia is of the predictable, beauty & the beast variation minus the romance.

The real standout character of THE DROWNED CITIES is Sergeant Ocho. Ocho is a war orphan much like Mahlia and Mouse but for the fact that he is a child soldier. Ocho has grown up, not avoiding war parties, but conducting them. He has fought and killed and lost the innocence of childhood at an early age. No matter what he has seen or done Ocho is still a human being underneath all the layers of indoctrination. This is a sympathetic character that adequately displays the evils man is capable of, written in a YA setting. This is a mature character in ways that Katniss Everdeen could never be.

THE DROWNED CITIES isn't a fun read. It is deep. It is dark. It is though provoking. But it isn't exactly fun. With novels of such heavy tone a little humor and levity can go a long way toward buoying the reader. Brief moments of happy respite are crucial to emphasize the bleakness of dystopia and these are largely missing. I wouldn't take THE DROWNED CITIES as a fun beach read. I would recommend that the book be discussed in a classroom setting. If a civics teacher wants to promote critical thinking and discussion on matters of war and politics I can see where this would be the perfect catalyst. After all, Bacigalupi's near-future America is scary because it is so plausible. At a time where political division is at an all time high we are frighteningly close to fulfilling this fictional representation.

If you enjoyed Bacigalupi's THE WIND-UP GIRL and SHIP BREAKER you will most assuredly appreciate THE DROWNED CITIES. If you found those stories to be too heavy and dark for your liking then chances are this is not the book for you. If anything THE DROWNED CITIES strikes me as even darker than THE WIND-UP GIRL just because the characters are so young and the setting strikes so close to home. I recommend this to fans of dystopian fiction (young and old alike) as well as professors of social studies who desire to spark a dialogue with their students.

Recommended Age: 16+
Language: More profanity than I've experienced in any other YA fiction novel.
Violence: More violence than I've experience in any other YA fiction novel, and don't forget that these are kids killing kids.
Sex: Prostitutes mentioned by the term of "nailshed girls" but sex is only vaguely mentioned.

Want it? Buy it here.

When I heard that Paolo Bacigalupi was going to follow up his award-winning debut novel, THE WINDUP GIRL, with a smaller YA book, I was a little disappointed. I loved THE WINDUP GIRL. It was rich and intense. It was complicated and diverse. It was gritty and cruel and I thought it was great. How on earth could Bacigalupi...wow this review is going to be hard to write if I keep having to write his last name. Let’s go with Paolo from now on shall we? Anyway, how was Paolo going to match those strengths in a YA novel? Turns out I needn’t have worried.

SHIPBREAKER is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that feels like it came straight out of the same world as THE WINDUP GIRL. The only differences were in perspective. Where THE WINDUP GIRL is focused on several characters in a larger setting, this story is more intimate following one viewpoint character.

The character, Nailer, was for me the highlight of the novel.

Let me tell you a bit about the book. Nailer is a small teen living out amongst a group of wrecked ships. He is part of a scavenging crew that goes into the ships and extracts valuable resources (Nailer’s job is extracting copper wiring). Nailer is afraid of becoming too large. Once he gets too big he won’t be able to fit in the small ducts of the ship anymore. If he becomes useless on his crew he has to find other work, or starve. On top of it all he is increasingly afraid of his abusive, alcoholic father. Basically it’s not a pretty world to live in.

OK, I just checked the product description for SHIPBREAKER on Amazon to see if I was going to give anything away about the book that wasn’t easily up for grabs. I’m not. Good.

So the story kicks in to full gear when Nailer comes across the wreck of a wealthy ship that has crashed on shore. He can either strip the boat for valuables, or he can rescue the young rich girl barely alive inside.

The book would be really rather depressing (and it’s no bright ray of sunshine to begin with) if Nailer left the girl to die and got rich off of the salvage. The end. It’s pretty obvious he’s going to try and save the girl. But here’s where SHIPBREAKER was really good. That decision. At the point in the story where Nailer is making that choice he is fighting in his head about what to do. His life is hard. Getting rich off of scavenge would be a good choice, an easy choice. His friend is even arguing it for him. And yet something in his past makes him choose something else. And it all seems totally believable. The actions and motivations were real and tough. It happens several more times over the course of the book, and through each choice you start to see how they are shaping Nailer and turning him more into the character he grows to be by the end. It was those choices and consequences that really helped this book shine. It didn’t feel like the choices were made because that’s what the story needed, but it was what the characters really decided to do. It felt believable.

To make a long story short (too late I think), I liked it. The book was a fun quick read, with characters and situations that stuck with me past when I put it down. The setting was interesting and new. In fact the world building seemed to keep going where THE WINDUP GIRL left off. Paolo’s vision of the future isn’t one I would look forward to living in, but it is a very well thought out place, and I enjoyed getting to see a bit more of it. If you liked THE WINDUP GIRL, this one should be right up your alley.

Age Recommendation: 14+. There are some swears and it’s a tough gritty world out there.
Language: Yeah a bit. Not a TON but enough that I realized it was there a bit.
Violence: The world is a gritty place. There are some deaths and some violent scenes.
Sex: Mentioned a few times. Never shown or given much emphasis.

The Hype Machine strikes again.

In case you didn't notice, the Hugo Award Finalists were announced just a bit ago. Among the contenders was listed WINDUP GIRL, by Paolo Bacigalupi. There has been all sorts of hype about this novel. People are heralding it as a masterpiece, or as a frightening look into our future. And it's true, on the surface the ideas that make up the setting seem pretty outstanding.

WINDUP GIRL takes place in a future Bangkok in a post-oil era. Genehacking and generipping have helped create some deadly virus mutations that kill people, animals, and plants alike. It is in this future that the most valuable commodities to the masses are calories. Every action in this novel is weighed against its energy cost versus its energy output. One of the main PoVs, Anderson, is undercover in Bangkok to discover new food sources that his company can exploit. Emiko is the Windup Girl, an artificially engineered person whom people (and religion) in general despise. As we mentioned, the setting seems pretty interesting. Unfortunately we need more than setting to enjoy the novel.

WINDUP GIRL begins without a hook. The pacing is extremely slow. It took a good 100 pages for our interest to be pulled in--the novel is only 350 pages long. The most frustrating thing about it? At times we couldn't put our finger on what we didn't like. It wasn't clear. You see, we like to discuss the books we are reading. What we like. What we hate. We soon realized that it was this very issue of clarity that was hurting the novel, and our ability to get sucked into the story.

Bacigalupi spends a lot of time talking about this future he has envisioned. Yet for all the pages dedicated to showing us the setting, none of it is clear. We get that the climate is hot, and the town is dirty. We are told about the animosity that different factions in the city hold for each other. But we don't really FEEL what the city is like. There is a revolution brewing in Bacigalupi's story, but we can't seem to care much about it. It is emotionless.

The characters are much the same. Instead of focusing on how the Emiko (you know, the title character of the story supposedly) is unique, and showing her grow, we are treated to scene after scene of her being used and abused as a sex toy. And really, that is almost the entirety of her "screen time." Anderson doesn't seem to care about anything, and assumes everything will work itself out. If he doesn't care, why should we? Jaidee is flat, and his lauded "never give up" and "fight on" attitude never really fully reaches maturity.

As mentioned before, the pacing is slow. People stand around and reminisce over a past that is never clearly realized for the reader. Yet, contrary to the pacing, the novel is actually a quick read. Maybe this was a result of hoping that something awesome would come in and completely change our view of the story. Bacigalupi writes well, but this particular story isn't told well. There is a difference. We've also read around that people who actually understand the whole science thing (aka not us), will be put off by the science in this SF novel. But we can't lend out opinions to this much. Some of it seemed hinky, but we aren't engineers.

Does this novel deserve the Hugo? We don't think so. Much like BONESHAKER, we feel like WINDUP GIRL had loads of potential, but fell far short of reaching it. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either. All that being said, we were a bit reminded of Ian McDonald's RIVER OF GODS and BRASYL, which we had a hard time getting in to. Perhaps we just aren't the right crowd for these types of novels, but if you like one, you may like the other.

Lastly, we don't speak Thai. At all. There quite a few times when even the context of the sentence couldn't help us figure out what the heck people were saying. A simple three-page glossary would have done wonders.


Recommended Age: 18 and up.
Language: Tons. One character's name is the F-word.
Violence: Quite a bit, but it isn't ever very clear.
Sex: Uh, yeah. It is almost always violent, brutal, a shock-oriented. Hence the 18 and up recommendation.