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185 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
What lay ahead was a lifetime of unexplored terrain, and I was more than ready to explore it and to find out who an what I was.Friends, it has been a few months since a book has made me feel like this. I devoured The Dark Side of Nowhere in a couple of hours and after finishing it I was left with the feeling of awe. I can't get this book out of my head. It is magical and exactly what I love about science fiction: the light that it casts on the darkest parts of our society through storytelling. The themes I picked up of otherness, political divide are hauntingly relevant to society today.
It's incredible the things you'll let yourself think... the things you'll let yourself do, when the right person gives you permission.One of the main reasons that I love science fiction can be summed up by this David Howe quote: "[g]reat science fiction forces us to look at who we are and ask the tough questions: where we are? where are we going? and what can we expect to find when we get there?" Neal Shusterman manages to capture this spirit of the genre perfectly here, exploring the ways that isolation and polarizing beliefs make it easier to categorize "outsiders" as The Other and breed feelings of superiority. How insidious it happens.
I don't know when I actually started thinking of myself as one of us instead of one of them [...] That kind of thinking grows inside you too slow to see, but too fast to stop - like the roots of a tree.These themes have been the root of conflict throughout human history and are timelessly relevant, but reading this book now in the age of algorithmic echo chambers, increased nationalism, and intense polarization was nothing less than haunting.
The thing about living in a private world, is that you've got nothing to feed on but the same thoughts and ideas bouncing forth at you from your friends. You sort of get locked in a feedback loop, and the things that start to sound normal and reasonable have no bearing on what's true.Shusterman has a way with words that captures the reader's attention and holds it from start to finish. The worldbuilding is superb, and he manages to explain the unexplainable in such a believeable way for the reader so they don't need to suspend disbelief to be drawn into the story. There are so many small details that helped paint such a great picture for me, but I really want to avoid spoiling the plot so I am going to refrain.