The Novelle: readingchallenge

18:30

Review: Inside Out

Author: Maria V. Snyder

Source: Amazon Kindle

Published: 2010

Rating: ★★

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.

From the off with this book I was instantly reminded of Wool by Hugh Howie; an amazing book about a population living in a silo. The similarity in plot lines may have tinted some of my preconceptions about the book but my general opinion not so much.

To cut a long story short, it was pretty much everything I don't like in a YA book - the main characters were annoyingly self righteous, there was an unwanted predictable romance, and talking about predictable, the whole story was obvious from start to finish with no plot twists (apart from one) that really surprised me.

As you joined Trella on her journey through the pipes of the Inside, the writing was fast paced and actioned packed enough that you got sucked into her world and felt the same things that she was feeling. Panic, confusion and lonlieness to name but a few. However, there was just something missing.

The whole book was a bit too one dimentional and lacked any real bite to take it to the next level. The characters were simple, the plot was simple and I felt as though there was so much that could have been done with this book that just wasn't.

The only thing that piqued my interest (and I can't even tell you, for spoilers) was the search for Gateway - the door to the Outside. Throughout the book the characters had many theories about Gateway and it's real or not real existance in Inside. That leading question was what propelled me through this book as I wanted to find out the answers as well. The ending however, I found to be a bit abrupt - I got confused as to what was happening and had to reread a few paragraphs a few times before I still didn't get what was going on - yes, that sentence sounds weird but I still don't know what actually happened.

Maybe this book would have appealed to me more had I been a bit younger, but it just didn't tick the boxes for me I'm afraid.