Review| Amped, by Daniel H. Wilson

Full Title: Amped
Author: Daniel H. Wilson
Genre: Science fiction/ Thriller
Publisher: Doubleday (Random House)
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
My Copy: Published book via Goodreads First Reads

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What would you do if you could choose to be something . . . more: have your vision and hearing enhanced, become smarter and stronger, be vital even in old age. Even fix medical ailments and control prosthetics with your mind. In Daniel H. Wilson’s Amped, people can now choose to have their brain implanted with a amplifier and their bodies enhanced. Thousands of Americans have chosen to become better versions of themselves. They are becoming “amps”. But as more and more people become amps, “pure” humans feel threatened. They can’t compete against amps. The amps go against the natural order, against God. As more and more legislation is passed, amps lose their rights and backlash is inevitable. Owen Gray has an amp. But his is medical, only intended to treat his seizures. Or so he believes. On the day that amps lose their Fourteenth Amendment rights, he learn that his amplifier might be something greater than he ever knew. Even greater than the standard implants, in fact. After heading out to seek the truth, he gets drawn into a plot that could rock this nation to its very core.

Owen is a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. I didn’t dislike him, but I didn’t immediately connect to him either. His backstory is minimal: we get the reason for his amp and not much else. The same is true for all characters, in fact. They aren’t given much of a description or story, leading to an overall lack of empathy on my part for them. Lucy, for instance, is a character it seems I should care about, but I can’t possibly bring myself to. I can’t even see why Owen should care for her. Their romance, if it can be called that, is as deep as a shower. Nick, on the other hand, I liked. He seems like a sweet kid just trying to grow up in a turbulent time.

The pace is breakneck, perhaps to a fault. Everything happens so fast and there is hardly ever a dull moment. It all very exciting for the duration of the novel, but then the ending seemed slapped together. More description in the latter pages would’ve helped tremendously. In the interest of not posting spoilers, I’ll just say some things were skimmed over and I’m still curious as to how certain points resolved themselves. Still, this is definitely a fast and fun read. Between the fight scenes and the chaos, the amp abilities and the lawlessness, it was hard to put this one down. I finished the book in one afternoon, and I can easily see this book being made into a movie.

Amped raises some very interesting questions: How do we define humanity? How far can science go? Where do we draw the line? But the most pressing question of of all: Could the sort of legal discrimination that occurs in Amped really happen in America? It has in the past, here and elsewhere. The parallels in Amped to the Holocaust are most apparent, the maintenance port a Star of David. And surely this nation has learned from the worldwide history of human suffering. . . right?

Amped isn’t a philosophical look at the human condition in the midsts of a societal crisis, though. It’s a fast paced, action packed novel with some serious entertainment value.

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Review| Vicious Little Darlings, by Katherine Easer

After her grandmother caught her having sex, Sarah Weaver has two choices: go to the college of her choice but pay for it on her own, or go to her grandmother's alma mater on her grandmothers dime. She chooses the later and finds herself at Wetherly College, and all-female school. There she meets Madison, her new roommate, and Agnes, the bizarre best friend.

Maddy is your quintessential beauty. Everyone seems to just love her. Worship her, even. There is a darker side though. Her initial quirkiness starts to take on a sinister edge. Agnes is Maddy’s best friend and bank account. Agnes is intensely loyal to Maddy, and her undying affection keeps her blind to the truth.

Sarah comes from a broken home, and all she wants is a family to call her own. She finds one in Maddy and Agnes. So enamoured she is with the new home they’ve created that she overlooks or accepts all the weird and crazy things that happen. The lies and deceptions, she rarely questions. Some of the deceit she even takes a compliment! She is very immature and irrational in this way. And as things spiral out of control, she just goes along for the ride. It’s infuriating at times. I found myself wanting her to just grow up, to just take charge of her situation.

Sarah is promiscuous. She refuses to get into relationships, citing her parents’ failed marriage. She feel love inevitably fails, that she might not even be capable or worthy of it. She has sex with Maddy’s boyfriend Sebastian on their second meeting, and with Reed on their first. With Reed, however, things are different. She feels that she can love him. She does love him, in fact...after about two meetings. Their love is that instant, shallow variety that features entirely too often in young-adult novels. It’s revolting. Reed often drops that “do you even love me” bomb typical of a unhealthy relationship. And our immature little Sarah accepts this as well.

Another bizarre element to this novel is the supernatural. All three girls believe in it and cite it frequently. Psychic intuition and gypsy readings are all taken to be real by the girls. It’s hard to tell if the reader is supposed to believe that supernatural elements are a true part of the novel’s world or just something the girls believe in. For instance, a ritual is spoken of as completely crazy, and yet a spell is used as a legitimate explanation of certain actions. The novel seems confused in this regard, like the author couldn’t decide how far into the realm of magical realism she wanted to go.

I wasn’t going to mention this initially . . . but how could I possibly leave out the deer? It’s a phenomenally absurd situation, unlikely to ever happen in the real world. Wanting to nurse a deer back to health is reasonable. Hiding one in your dorm and then at the St. Regis hotel is completely crazy. The only explanation I can come up with is that the author threw it in to show how unhinged these girls are. Yes, that has to be it.

Katherine Easer’s Vicious Little Darlings, despite its flaws, is an engaging read. Once I started, I was hooked. I wanted to see just how far these girls would go, how low they would sink. I had to know how things would resolve themselves. If you’re into young adult novels and don’t mind some absurdity, you may want to check this one out. It’s definitely a fast, fun read.

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Review| Abdication, by Juliet Nicolson

England, 1936: The king is having a love affair with an American woman, and the threat of Hitler’s Germany looms over the country. Poverty is rampant while those with position live in abundance. this is the backdrop for Abdication, by Juliet Nicolson. We follow three people living in England during this turbulent time.

May Thomas, traveling with her brother, leaves her Barbados home to make a new life for herself. Her passion for automobiles lands her a job as secretary and driver to Sir Philip Blunt. Here, she glimpses life in the upper echelon of British society. May is young, headstrong, and talented. Despite a secret he keeps from those close to her, she is willing to let love in.

Evangeline Nettlefold is an American from Baltimore gone to stay with her godmother, Lady Joan Blunt. She is friends with Wallis Simpson, the woman who stole the kings heart. Evangeline is a sad, jealous, bitter woman. She is a flawed individual, making her a times likeable and, at other times, detestable.

Julian Richardson is a well-off young man with an Oxford education. An idealist, the poverty surrounding his luxurious life troubles him. He takes an interest in May, who is frank and insightful when discussing the poorer people of the country. As his political opinions strengthen and his infatuation deepens, he can no longer ignore how he feels.

The historical aspect of the abdication of King Edward VIII is merely a backdrop to the story. Wallis Simpson is a part of the story as a supporting character, as Evangeline’s friend. The looming threat of war is featured in the same capacity. It is a backdrop to the human drama. This backdrop is, however, very well described. Juliet Nicolson is a very talented writer in this regard. London comes to life. Depth is lacking, however, when it comes to the main characters themselves. Julian in particular. We spend more time with May and Evangeline, and learn more about them but still a deep connection never really happened for me. Julian gets less screen-time, if you will, and so a connection with him is even more elusive. Another problem for me was pacing. Events seem to just chug along by mid-book. The story moved too slowly, and I found myself waiting for something to actually happen. Things pick up again towards the end, thankfully.

While Abdication has its problems, it is overall a well written novel. As it is well researched, it is insightful in a historical context. We get a good sense of this period in time.On the character level, though, it just isn’t very deep.

[I received this book through Goodreads' First Reads giveaway.]

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Review| The Pleasures of Men, by Kate Williams

Kate Williams’ The Pleasures of Men is a strange little book telling the strange tale of a strange protagonist and her strange thoughts. Can you guess what I’d call this book in a word? Strange.

Catherine is a troubled young woman living with her uncle in London. She undergoes some trauma as a child, and is now largely isolated. Rarely leaving the house, her imagination is her main company. When a serial killer begins murdering young women, Catherine tries to get inside his mind. She believes she can understand him. Catherine goes to the places where he has killed, the dirty streets where he roams. She imagines his past in vivid detail. She discovers, however, that things are not as they seem—that truth is a lot closer to home.

This books is well written and clearly well researched. This descriptions of London are vivid, the poverty is palpable. Still, it took awhile for me to get into it. The story starts off quite slowly. With shifting narratives in the beginning, it's difficult to parse out who is actually speaking: is it another person, or Catherine's imagination? Things becomes more clear in time, but at the start it’s a bit off-putting. At some point, however, the novel managed to snag my interest. I wanted to find out what Catherine's childhood trauma was, as well as the identity and motivations of the Man of Crows.

Bits of the plot can feel a bit contrived, though, and the biggest flaw is that it feels lacking in an apparent coherence. Still, the book overall is very dark and beautifully imagined. Anyone interested in Victorian England may enjoy this gothic thriller.

[Disclosure: I recieverd this book through a Shelf Awareness giveaway.]

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Review| The Glimpse, by Claire Merle

The Glimpse, by Claire Merle, is a dystopian young adult novel in which society is divided and controlled by its government. The method of their subjugation? Mental health as determined by a DNA test. If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is. And Merle knows that. She has created a post-collapse world where the people are struggling for order, willing to put their trust in anyone with an answer. Que the Pure test. It claims to detect mental illness, and weeding these “defective” people out seems to improve society... at least for a privileged few, the Pure. And so, people buy into the big lie. I found the use of mental illness effective, and not at all offensive. It’s acknowledged pretty early in the novel that the test is a sham, that the ability to test for mental illness in DNA isn’t possible. The segregation of the people, ruling them with fear, is the real reason for the tests.

Ana, the protagonist, has her Pure status revoked when a certain anomaly comes to light. Now her future is in the hands of Jasper. She needs to bind with him or she’ll be cast out among the Crazies. Having been raised in a Pure community, she believes what she has been taught of them: they are violent, aggressive, unpredictable. When Jasper goes missing, Ana is determined to find him, to solve the mystery of his abduction. Out in the real world, far from the safety of her community, Ana learns the truth of the Pures and the Crazies, of the tests and the treatments her government issues. Her world is thoroughly rocked, and she will never be the same. Ana is a strong character. She rises to the challenges thrown at her. She has doubts and fears, but she does her best and uses her head.

At times, though, the highly improbable happens. This is a work of fiction, sure, but suspension of disbelief can only go so far. She played a lawyer and won based only on some reading she did? Really? With just a haircut and a pair of contacts, she went completely unrecognised? Ugh. No. Another problem for me: the instant-love. Ana meets Cole. Sparks fly. They love one another. Forever. Um, bite me. That sounds like a crush, like lust. The word “love” is used, though... am I to believe thats what it is? If that is love, then it is of the shallow variety. That magical Disney love that takes no time at all to manifest itself. It’s a fairy tale wedged into a dystopian novel, and it drags down the quality of the story for me.

Last major bone of contention for me: the glimpse itself. From what I gather of this ill-explained phenomenon, the glimpse is a look into the future that only certain people get. This entire concept seems so completely random to me! Why throw this little paranormal tidbit into the book? Nothing else in this novels world-building hints at anything psychic or supernatural, so why is it included? It seems to me that the only purpose for it is to push Cole and Ana towards one another. An attempt to make that little fairy-tale-love seem more believable, more real. It falls completely flat, though.

Despite these flaws, I’d still say The Glimpse is well written and engaging. Merle is clearly talented. The actual flow of the story was smooth; Ana, well drawn. As a dystopian novel, though, this isn’t one of the strongest I’ve read. If you like YA sci-fi in general, especially those with a strong element of romance, then The Glimpse may be right up your alley.

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