America Pacifica

Mar 27, 2013 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-end

this is a new slant on the old dystopia.

so, north america has been consumed by a second ice age, and all that's left is this one island off the coast, reinforced by heaps of garbage that is gradually crumbling into the sea. whatever survivors were able to escape from the cold remains of the mainland struggle for survival under a system that is blatantly unfair and led by some egomaniacal lunatic who ignores the suffering and makes wild promises and plans that cannot be fulfilled. however, there...more
this is a new slant on the old dystopia.

so, north america has been consumed by a second ice age, and all that's left is this one island off the coast, reinforced by heaps of garbage that is gradually crumbling into the sea. whatever survivors were able to escape from the cold remains of the mainland struggle for survival under a system that is blatantly unfair and led by some egomaniacal lunatic who ignores the suffering and makes wild promises and plans that cannot be fulfilled. however, there is still an elite class enjoying their vast wealth who can afford luxuries such as meat and strawberries while the majority suffer and sweat and eat jellyfish.

ariel would not last one day here.

this is a different kind of "after" novel than world made by hand, where the land is still arable and the citizens simply revert to a pre-industrial society and the struggle is re-learning everything that was lost when technology made everything easier. this book describes a far more unstable landmass where the fallacy is to still cling to the old ways of doing things in an unforgiving environment that cannot sustain itself, instead of figuring out how to best adapt to the new environment, so there is a constant sense of approaching doom that makes the situation that much more intense.

and yet, life goes on...

darcy was born on the island, so she has no means of comparison, but she recognizes the reality of her situation, and the kinds of things she has to do to survive, and when her mother goes missing, she sets out to find her because without her, she has nothing.

a lot of this reminded me of the room - where a mother takes a horrible place to raise a child and tries to salvage the situation by making herself her child's whole world. which is probably therapeutic for a while, but when that center is removed - what does the child have left? in this case - a whole lot of terror ahead of her and a dangerous journey where she will learn all sorts of secrets and truths and become involved in a revolution, all before she turns eighteen.

this is not YA fiction, but it could probably be enjoyed by that audience. it is dark enough to be titillating to those kids who feed on the misfortunes of their literary friends. many bad things happen to poor darcy and the people she encounters along the way, but it seems plausible to the situation, it is never just violence for violence's sake.

i feel like the author intends to write a follow-up to this book, which i will gladly read. this one was a fun diversion but not the most compelling dystopian novel i have read. i feel like there was not enough character development; as sheltered as darcy was in so many ways, she seemed psychologically precocious in a way that didn't ring true. but it's definitely worth checking out and a good addition to the stack of post-event fiction out there. keep writing them, and i will keep reading them...(less)

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May 23, 2011 Christina rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: lovers of teen dystopic fiction

Shelves: first-reads, read-in-2011

Maybe the problem with this book is that I read it t0o soon after Catching Fire, which shone a light on how poorly drawn the protagonist was and how little I cared for her compared to my feelings for Ms. Katniss Everdeen. Overall, I think the premise of this book was good, and I thought many of the details of what it was like in America Pacifica were well done, but I never felt like Darcy was fully developed as a character, and **SPOILER** I didn't understand how she suddenly became a hero to ev...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Rory O'Connor rated it 4 of 5 stars

America Pacifica, Anna North’s debut novel, is a gritty, richly detailed post-apocalyptic look at one of the last outposts of civilization. After North America is covered in a second ice age, mainland scientist Daniel argued that the humans needed to adapt to the climate change instead of fleeing, while Tyson (future dictator of the island) argued that they should search for warmer climates. The island is inhabited solely by those who supported Tyson. Unfortunately, the amount of people that the...more America Pacifica, Anna North’s debut novel, is a gritty, richly detailed post-apocalyptic look at one of the last outposts of civilization. After North America is covered in a second ice age, mainland scientist Daniel argued that the humans needed to adapt to the climate change instead of fleeing, while Tyson (future dictator of the island) argued that they should search for warmer climates. The island is inhabited solely by those who supported Tyson. Unfortunately, the amount of people that the island can support in comfort is pitifully few. The rich live in mansions, eating fresh produce, and wearing real clothes. The poor barely subsist on food and clothing manufactured by jellyfish and seaweed, in homes that cannot even keep out the rain. North builds a fascinating world in which the social class divide governs all aspects of the residents’ life. Despite this novel being dramatic, there are quite a few witty class-based observations.

Darcy begins the novel as an 18 year old high school dropout working six days a week in a nursing home cafeteria. She is not concerned with the larger fate of her island. What she worries about is the ability to pay her rent and make it through each day. She is essentially ignorant of her surroundings (as is appropriate for a struggling 18 year old). It is only when her mother goes missing that Darcy, determined to find her, begins to come to terms with reality on the island. As Darcy’s search leads her into the underbelly of the island, the novel thematically touches on class, revolution, and feminism during Darcy’s rise to “fame”.

America Pacifica is a well written, literary post-apocalyptic dystopian novel populated with strong female characters and sociopolitical themes. The latter are not reasons to read the book, though they are well done, America Pacifica should be read simply because it is an intriguing book set in a richly constructed, fantastical world. I would recommend this book for fans of literary fiction
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Apr 29, 2012 Lori L (She Treads Softly) rated it 4 of 5 stars

America Pacifica by Anna North is set in a post-apocalyptic future. America Pacifica, an unidentified island, was settled by refugees from the USA after a new ice age has overtaken the continent. It is now 2043 and America Pacifica is run by a dictator called Tyson. It is a society based on a strict social hierarchy, or caste-system, in which the privileged few try to recreate the life they (or their parents) had in North America, while the majority struggle simply to survive.

In the novel survi...more America Pacifica by Anna North is set in a post-apocalyptic future. America Pacifica, an unidentified island, was settled by refugees from the USA after a new ice age has overtaken the continent. It is now 2043 and America Pacifica is run by a dictator called Tyson. It is a society based on a strict social hierarchy, or caste-system, in which the privileged few try to recreate the life they (or their parents) had in North America, while the majority struggle simply to survive.

In the novel survival is a struggle for 18 year old Darcy and her mother. Darcy works in the kitchen at an residential enclave for senior citizens. Her mother works as a pearl diver. When Darcy's mother disappears, she sets out on a quest to try and find her mother, and the reason for her disappearance. The descriptions reinforce a dirty, gritty feeling as you follow Darcy's journey through the various neighborhoods and polluted piles of trash while searching for clues about her mother's disappearance. Darcy's inquiries lead her to Ansel, a dissident, and some startling information about the founding of their island home.

North did some note-worthy world building in America Pacifica. It also serves as a political allegory, and focuses on class systems, poverty, revolution, and ecology in the changed world. Most of the action takes place in and describes the poor areas of America Pacifica. The poor classes eat food products manufactured from jellyfish and seaweed. Seaweed is a basis for building materials and clothing for the poor, which causes problems when it rains. Some residents are addicted to huffing solvent. It's said to be a young adult novel, but be forewarned that it contains a few graphic scenes.

I felt like America Pacifica was well written, however there was a point toward the end of the novel where it felt like something was left out and there were just a few stumbles. The ending seems to indicate that there will be a sequel so the climax was a bit of a let down for me. If you like post-apocalyptic fiction and can accept an ending that isn't then you'll likely enjoy America Pacifica. I will be looking for the sequel. Highly Recommended, almost very: http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
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Nov 11, 2011 Anne Marsh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: post-apocalyptic

'm not sure what to do with AMERICA PACIFICA. The book has one of the most gorgeous covers I've seen recently and some absolutely riveting world-building, but it wasn't what I expected, which left me disappointed.

I was looking for a more traditional, fast-paced post-apocalyptic story, where much of the book focuses on the journey and the characters' struggles to survive in their changed world. This is a much more established world-- the characters already have their places and the story's empha...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Alex M. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, fantasy-and-sci-fi

Working through how I feel about this book. The writing was good, detailed, and vivid. I felt like I was there, which is a little unfortunate given that it's not a pleasant future that North has painted. In the year 2043, a teenaged girl named Darcy lives on an island in the Pacific after North America has succumbed to the Ice Age's second coming. Her mother goes missing one day and that disappearance unravels Darcy's whole life as she embarks on a search for her.

The novel is dark and gritty, le...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Steven Buechler rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A interesting read for the the summer months. Deals with a dystopian society in the near future who had to leave North America for a small crowded island in the Pacific.

-page 39
"The guard station at Eighteenth and Avenida was next to a taco stand. Every time the wind changed, the gamy, artificial smell of imitation goat washed over the people squatting in the packed waiting room, and the women waved their hands in front of their faces and the children pinched their noses and the men looked out t...more

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May 23, 2011 Parajunkee.com rated it 1 of 5 stars

America Pacifica by Anna North

The growing trend in dystopian fiction has sucked me in hook, line and sinker. I thought I was getting another gem with AMERICA PACIFICA, the concept seemed so very original. Yet, unfortunately the tone and descriptions of the world ruined it for within the first few pages. The novel was just too gritty, the descriptions left a terrible taste in my mouth and I felt like I was swallowing back bile as I read through these pages. This, I guess is a remarkable testament...more America Pacifica by Anna North

The growing trend in dystopian fiction has sucked me in hook, line and sinker. I thought I was getting another gem with AMERICA PACIFICA, the concept seemed so very original. Yet, unfortunately the tone and descriptions of the world ruined it for within the first few pages. The novel was just too gritty, the descriptions left a terrible taste in my mouth and I felt like I was swallowing back bile as I read through these pages. This, I guess is a remarkable testament to the the writers abilities, but I think Ms. North took it too far, for me anyway. I was so busy entrenched in the smell of seaweed, the thought of communal bathrooms, public masturbating, unwashed armpits and greasy hair that I couldn’t attach myself to the character of Darcy. I wanted to wear gloves as I read this book, I didn’t want to bond with the story.

The dystopian tale of AMERICA PACIFICA takes place on the island of the same name. The main character is Darcy, whom has just turned 18. A generation ago the inhabitants fled North America as it was overrun by glaciers from an impending ice age. The island is a horrendous place to live if you are poor. The poor basically live in shantytowns that are being sucked back into the sea. Darcy is among those poor, her only respite and friend, her mother. Yet, that is taken away from her when her mother disappears and Darcy is forced to search the island for her, finding out more and more about her mother’s past and her role in the creation of AMERICA PACIFICA.

I don’t want to go into specifics, but this novel left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I felt disgusted reading this one. The novel had the tone of a Steinbeck novel, that gritty, in-your-face, depressing quality that takes a certain mind-set to get through. Yet, Steinbeck wrote about real issues, real world depression and this was all a fantasy. I felt no hope while reading this novel, only a disturbing obsession that I needed a bath.

Recommendations
This is not for the feint of heart. Adults only, sex and violence.

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Apr 20, 2011 Bookworm rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really eager to read America Pacifica since I'm a fan of science fiction and dystopian stories, but don't often read types of books.
This book starts off with 18 year old Darcy and her mom, Sarah, living in a run down apartment type complex on an island called America Pacifica. The story takes place after the second Ice Age.
Darcy's mom was one of the first to settle on America Pacifica when everyone had to evacuate the mainland. Darcy has plenty of questions for her mom about life on the ma...more I was really eager to read America Pacifica since I'm a fan of science fiction and dystopian stories, but don't often read types of books.
This book starts off with 18 year old Darcy and her mom, Sarah, living in a run down apartment type complex on an island called America Pacifica. The story takes place after the second Ice Age.
Darcy's mom was one of the first to settle on America Pacifica when everyone had to evacuate the mainland. Darcy has plenty of questions for her mom about life on the mainland, but Sarah is always vague and evasive when it comes to speaking about life before America Pacifica.

The island is run by someone named Tyson, who ensures that the rich are very well off and the poor, like Darcy and Sarah, struggle to survive. Darcy and her mom live in the grimy, seedy part of the island. Darcy works at a building for senior citizens, serving food. Her mother works doing backbreaking labor as a pearl diver.
Darcy and her mom have awful living conditions and often go hungry. They share their bathroom with the other tenants and their building is rundown. Some of the tenants do 'solvent', a type of drug, which is similar to crack. Most of their food consists of jelly fish seasoned and flavored to resemble something else, like Salisbury steak or goat meat. The two are very close and almost live in their own little world sheltered from outsiders.

When Darcy's mother doesn't return home from her job one night, Darcy fears the worse. She goes on a search to find her mom and ends up injured, with her life endangered and discovering some secrets about the island as well as her own mother.
As she tries to get closer to the truth, Darcy meets several people, some of whom knew her mother personally. She begins to put pieces of the puzzle together.

Author Anna North vividly describes the island of America Pacifica and as I read, I really got the sense of how grimy and depressing it was. I do wish some of her descriptions were a bit more detailed, sometimes I felt lost as to what certain things were. Many objects on the island such as paper and clothing are made from something called 'Seaboard', yet this material was never fully explained, so I just assumed it was made from seaweed or sand.
Some of the descriptions in the story were very crude, especially when it came to sexual organs. I just thought I'd mention that, I do know some readers would be put off by that. It didn't bother me, it just added to the grittiness of the story.

I liked Darcy's character, and I instantly panicked when her mother didn't return from work. Once Darcy went deeper into the slums of America Pacifica, I felt for her character even more as she tried to find her mothers whereabouts.
Sarah herself makes her appearance in the first few pages of the story, so most of what the reader knows about her is through Darcy's memories and from what the other characters recall about her. As you read you really get a feel of the bond they shared.

The writing was well done and as I said, I really got a feel of this Dystopian world and its inhabitants. The characters were also well written and the plot was interesting.
I should also say, the ending is left wide open. There was really no satisfying conclusion, so I'm assuming there will be a sequel.

All in all, I enjoyed America Pacifica and can see this being the start of new series.

see my full review here
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/201...(less)

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Apr 16, 2011 Pamela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopian, fiction

I had to chew on this book a while before I could write this review. It is without question very well-written, a literary dystopian novel with an intriguing setting and a strong protagonist. However, the plot seems to stumble a bit right when it should be cresting.

We do not see many characters in great depth. The reader lives in Darcy's head, and Darcy doesn't let herself get close to anyone. People you think you should trust turn out to be less than trustworthy, and really, it's a good thing th...more I had to chew on this book a while before I could write this review. It is without question very well-written, a literary dystopian novel with an intriguing setting and a strong protagonist. However, the plot seems to stumble a bit right when it should be cresting.

We do not see many characters in great depth. The reader lives in Darcy's head, and Darcy doesn't let herself get close to anyone. People you think you should trust turn out to be less than trustworthy, and really, it's a good thing that Darcy doesn't let anyone close. Despite the fact that we never learn much about the supporting characters, Darcy proves to be an unusually perceptive character. Through her point of view, we see portraits of these characters that are roughly painted, but are at the same time strangely realistic. Ansel's fanaticism, Nathaniel's bitterness, Marie's complexity... we see hints of all of this, but we can never really trust that Darcy's perception of these people is true.

Darcy is also revealed to us in sketches. She thinks of herself and her life in interludes, and we learn how she and her mother had built their own world populated only by themselves, and we see how Darcy's world falls apart when her mother disappears, and how she has to learn to navigate the corrupt streets of the island to try to find the one person who matters. By the end, Darcy is still searching for something. The book doesn't feel so much like a journey of discovery for the character, though she does learn about herself. It feels more like a passing glimpse at Darcy's life, from the past her mother always told her to forget into the unknowable future.

The dystopia itself--the island nation created when North America collapsed under the weight of a new ice age--is pretty standard as dystopias go. The elite and the non-elite are sharply defined in a created world that balances on apathy. Most of the people don't care enough to really look at their world, and so the rich go on eating real meat while the poor scrape by on jellyfish, cheese food, and drugs. What makes this dystopia stand out, though, are North's rich descriptions of the island. Most of the book takes place within the poor areas: Little Los Angeles, Hell City, the sad facsimile of the Vegas strip, and the utter desperation of the people in these areas is almost palpable, it's so well-described. The nicer areas that Darcy ventures into seem almost surreal; Darcy is shocked by the smell of cleanness, by the oblivious wastefulness of the privileged. North's descriptions and world-building are very effective.

The plot itself starts out simply and grows in complexity. Darcy's mother goes missing, and Darcy tries to find her. Along the way, she finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy that goes back to before the island, before she was even born, when the mainland was icing over. It's an intriguing plot, but I couldn't help feeling a little let down when everything finally came to a head. As I said earlier, the plot stumbles a little bit, and the climax felt a bit like it came out of left field. The denouement trails off into a very ambiguous ending. I liked the ending--IMO, we American readers could use a little ambiguity every once in a while in the face of all these decisive endings we demand, hehe. But if you are someone who can't handle an ambiguous ending, this book will frustrate you.

Overall, I would recommend America Pacifica to someone looking for a grown-up dystopia. The writing is excellent, and the portrayal of the poor underbelly of the dystopian society is very strong. It is definitely an engrossing story; I caught myself feeling extremely anxious a few times while reading, as the book had really sucked me in. I had to put it down and go hug my fiancé just to get my head out of the world a couple of times.

(Review originally published at The Discriminating Fangirl.)(less)

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Mar 31, 2011 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

America Pacifica by Anna North is a dystopian novel that takes place on a tightly packed small tropical island where Americans have moved to following an ice age which made North America Uninhabitable. The island is controlled by a leader who ensures that the rich (those who made it to the island first) live a nice and comfortable life while the poor squander to stay alive. Darcy has grown up on the island in severe poverty dropping out of school to work at a nursing home to help support herself...more America Pacifica by Anna North is a dystopian novel that takes place on a tightly packed small tropical island where Americans have moved to following an ice age which made North America Uninhabitable. The island is controlled by a leader who ensures that the rich (those who made it to the island first) live a nice and comfortable life while the poor squander to stay alive. Darcy has grown up on the island in severe poverty dropping out of school to work at a nursing home to help support herself and her mother. When her mother disappears she drops everything to find her and uncovers more than she expected about the real history of the island and it's founders.

I had mixed feelings about this book, it's being cross marketed to the YA audience so I expected something completely different, once I realized it was an adult book I enjoyed it more. The book is very gritty. Darcy lives in total poverty and is so desperate to find her mother that she is willing to do anything to get information. While the story was entertaining it was not always engrossing and the dystopia and "enemy" were not strong enough for this book to be fantastic. There were plot points and characters that were unnecessary and distracting to the main plot which bogged down the story for me and the lack of a strong and prevalent secondary character kept me detached at times. Darcy went from place to place and met with different people most of which did not ever appear again.

Appropriateness: As I said earlier I was initially under the impression that this was a Young Adult audience because it has been cross promoted to YA bloggers. This is not a young adult book, it is an adult book that has a main character that is a teenager. The main character is a reformed drug addict (who huffed solvent) and speaks longingly about the drugs as an escape. There is quite a bit of sexual content in this book which are "icky" rather than erotic. There are descriptions of sexual organs, masturbation and a graphic description of Darcy having sex with someone for information. There is some violence but not a large amount and there is no romance at all. I would recommend this book to science fiction and dystopia fans 16+ who would not be put off by the sexual content. This book isn't erotica by any sense and would not be harmful for younger readers however the nature of the sexual content is of the type that would make younger readers uncomfortable. (less)

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Aug 31, 2011 Gretchen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I very much enjoyed this book. It is set in 2043, and America has turned into ice, and some survivors moved to a new island between Hawaii and California, and established a new country - America Pacifica. 15 year old Darcy grew up there, and it is a very unequal society with her and her mom barely scrapping by. When her mom disappears, Darcy goes on a hunt to find her and in doing so uncovers secrets about the ruling people of America Pacifica, the mainland, and about her mom. This future world...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars

Only read this book if you have a morbid curiosity to experience the reality I am about to describe: America Pacifica is a twenty-year-old dystopia located on an island--colonized after survival on the mainland of North America has become impossible due to a sudden and swift ice age--controlled by a ubiquitous and ultimately debilitated man via propaganda and violence against incoming ships seeking to rescue people from the overcrowded city. Add to that a tendency for the main character--who was...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Tess Malone rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've always loved dystopian fiction for its escapism. With America Pacifica, sometimes I was embroiled and sometimes I was well aware I was reading a fiction. One thing North got right was her dystopia. The book gets its title from an island where Americans have moved after the second Ice Age has frozen everywhere else out. They do not learn to adapt to the island, instead they adapt it to some confused nostalgia of the Mainland. This means that although they can produce real strawberries, it is...more I've always loved dystopian fiction for its escapism. With America Pacifica, sometimes I was embroiled and sometimes I was well aware I was reading a fiction. One thing North got right was her dystopia. The book gets its title from an island where Americans have moved after the second Ice Age has frozen everywhere else out. They do not learn to adapt to the island, instead they adapt it to some confused nostalgia of the Mainland. This means that although they can produce real strawberries, it is at the cost of polluting the environment further and its population. I appreciated North's inclusion of global warming without being too preachy. The dystopia is stereotypically full of class warfare, but North's descriptions of poverty are vividly gritty. You can smell the rot and taste the jellyfish powder. Some reviewers have claimed the book is too gritty, but since when are dystopias pleasant? Besides her physically sickening descriptions of poverty made the contrast of the affluent morally sickening.

However, North loses the power of her well-crafted dystopia with an ill-crafted plot. The protagonist, 18-year-old Darcy, is poor and only has her mother for company. When her mother goes missing, Darcy gives up everything to search for and uncovers the political lie the island was founded on and her mother's role in it. Yet nothing ever feels truly at stake. We don't know Darcy's mother well enough to care about her, so when we find out her fate it feels anticlimactic. Darcy, however, is never removed from the narrative making her fail to seem at threat. She is only a compelling character in the search for her mother, which makes her slightly boring to follow after awhile. She never feels like a heroine and when the role is thrust upon her, she wears it awkwardly. North's writing is occasionally awkward as well and some of the descriptions are a little clunky. The novel sometimes had the tone of YA, but the content is definitely inappropriate for that genre.

Nevertheless, North seems like she's eager to write a sequel and because of the well imagined world she has created, I'd like to read one. Hopefully some of the weaker sides of Darcy's character can be mended as she comes into her own.(less)

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Oct 26, 2011 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I liked this book so much more than other dystopian novels I've read lately. Probably because it's so plot-driven. All dystopian novels present a bleak vision of the future, and in this book it's a fairly near-term future (2040's) when an ice age leads everyone to abandon North America and colonize an island in the Pacific where it's still warm. Life on the island totally sucks -- the rich people keep on living with all the comforts of home, while the poor live in shantytowns ma...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Alex rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was a pleasant read. I can't say that it was impressive--this novel does not really challenge genres, conventions, etc.--but I was satisfied reading it and somewhat invested in the character of Darcy.

Having said that, I found the prose a little flat in at times, like the there wasn't any fun being had with language. Anna North writes in a style that delivers facts and information, which can be great, but I felt that a lot of the greater attempts at descriptions did not do that much for me....more

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Aug 11, 2011 Derek rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

America Pacifica by Anna North

Set in the relatively near future, there’s a new ice age and people, unable to live on mainland America anymore, have retreated to a small island in the Pacific. Darcy, an eighteen year old girl who works in a retirement home sets out to find out what has happened to her mother and inadvertently becomes the figurehead for a revolution.

I like this type of fiction normally but this one doesn’t work on any level. The future society has far too many holes in it to be c...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Susan Coleman rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: couldn-t-finish, flea-market-fodder

Got about 50 pages in and had to stop, largely due to sentences like, "Every time the wind changed, the gamy, artificial smell of imitation goat washed over the people squatting in the packed waiting room, and the women waved their hands in front of their faces and the children pinched their noses and the men looked out the little windows at the rushing late-afternoon street." The dystopian world isn't so much drawn for us to imagine the sights, sounds, and smells, as it's laid out in very bland...more

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Sep 24, 2011 rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: from-library, love-the-cover, sci-fi-fantasy, nice-surprise, 2011, tough-broads

Think Winter's Bone crossed with Ship Breaker, spiked with a little bit of The Hunger Games, and you have a good idea of what is excellent and maybe not so excellent about America Pacifica. The not so excellent thing is that because the market is so heavily saturated with dystopian worlds and headstrong girls in search of justice and/or their family members, this will seem like so many things you've already read and loved before. Perhaps in contrast it will fall short. You might be tempted to pu...more

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Aug 22, 2011 Emily Park rated it 5 of 5 stars

http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2011/0...

America Pacifica takes place at some point in the not-so-distant future (my guess would be about 40 years from now). In the future, North America succumbs to a new ice age, leaving most of the continent completely uninhabitable. An island colony was established in the Pacific Ocean. This new settlement was dubbed America Pacifica, and holds about 50,000 residents. The island is governed by a mysterious dictator whose council keeps a very tight hold on ever...more http://em-and-emm.blogspot.com/2011/0...

America Pacifica takes place at some point in the not-so-distant future (my guess would be about 40 years from now). In the future, North America succumbs to a new ice age, leaving most of the continent completely uninhabitable. An island colony was established in the Pacific Ocean. This new settlement was dubbed America Pacifica, and holds about 50,000 residents. The island is governed by a mysterious dictator whose council keeps a very tight hold on everything. Darcy, an 18 year old girl, lives on America Pacifica with her mother, Sarah. Sarah came to the island as a young woman, several years before Darcy's birth, and was one of the earliest residents to settle there. Darcy and Sarah are extremely close, and have no other relatives or friends. They live in a dilapidated apartment with leaky ceilings and a communal bathroom, and with both of their wages they barely have enough money to pay rent and to buy cans of cheese food. One day Sarah receives a strange visitor at their apartment, and the next day, she's gone. Darcy sets off on a journey to find her missing mother, and along the way she starts to learn truths about the island's history, its government and various secrets being kept by both the government and Darcy's own mother.

This was a fantastic book. At slightly less than 300 pages, it's a pretty short read (I read it in a single evening!). North's writing style is very engaging and beautiful. She describes the island with such detail that it's almost easy to smell the rotting sewage and feel the oppressive crush of sweaty, tired slum-dwellers around you. Darcy, initially a somewhat unlikable character, feels three-dimensional. Her thoughts and feelings seem real, and she's a complex and believable character who shows a lot of growth and resilience over the course of the book. None of the other major characters are exactly simple, either. Even at the end, it's not particularly clear whether Darcy's allies are exactly good, and the "bad guys" turn out to be surprising as well. I would say that my least favorite character is probably Darcy's mom, Sarah, because she seems sort of childish and vapid. Strangely, other characters talk about how great Sarah is, but the truth is she never told Darcy anything about her mysterious past (a dangerous mistake, it turns out!) and she constantly approached life with Darcy as a game.

In terms of plot complexity, it's pretty straightforward since the cast of characters is manageable and we only follow one point of view (Darcy's). Thematically, however, it's pretty complex. The culture on the island is one of gaping social disparities, based on how early one arrived on the island. For the most part, you're stuck with whatever level of society you're born into. There are the first-boaters, who live in real houses with electricity and get to eat real food and go to real schools. There are the second-boaters, who live in decent apartments. And then, there are the slums, with varying levels of awfulness. Since they have access to running water and (sometimes) electricity, Darcy and her mother could be considered lucky, even though their building is pretty much falling down around their ears. So, some of the major themes of the book are social disparity, social mobility, and entitlement. There's also discussion of what happens when citizens become apathetic and selfish. Darcy admits, several times, to not caring about the news and not caring about how awful the government is, as long as she gets to eat. Several other characters express similar sentiments, and many say that there's no point in voting or following events because things won't ever change. Finally, there's also a message about what happens when you ignore history and the lessons of your elders.

My biggest complaint is that for a community of about 50,000 residents, the island seems awfully small. Darcy works at a retirement home, and it just so happens that one of the residents just happened to know Sarah before anyone ever came to the island, back when they both still lived in a co-op outside of Seattle. That seems a little bit too convenient. And another resident just happened to know another character, also from the mainland, who turns out to be pretty important in the end. Again, a little too convenient, but I guess in a community of 50,000, you're bound to run into someone who knows someone of importance.

My second complaint is that the ending is somewhat ambiguous. North points you in the direction of the conclusion, and gives you hints about what probably happened, but no firm confirmation. I don't think she's leaving room for a sequel... I think that's just how she preferred to end the book. I happen to prefer firm, solid endings, but some readers like leaving things open, so I think that this complaint is really just based on personal preference.

Based on this book's description, I thought I'd find it in either the YA section or the sci-fi/fantasy section. I was wrong... if you go looking for it at your local bookstore, it's classified under general literature. I have tagged it as a post-apocalypse type novel, if only because the setting of the book is after the entire United States is covered in ice, but since the characters are more preoccupied with their present day status, and less concerned about the ice age anymore, the label doesn't entirely fit. It is, however, slightly dystopian (arguably), if that's the kind of literature you enjoy.

5/5 stars (less)

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Jan 24, 2011 Pearl rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is actually entitled, "America Pacifica" by Anna North. The cover is correct (stating Anna North) and the ISBN number goes to "America Pacifica," NOT "Teaching Children Tennis the Vic Braden Way." This book is amazing (America Pacifica), so when Goodreads fixes this error I will rate the book as such. Sadly I've never read a book by Vic Braden, but Ms. North's book is about a near future where the world is in a second ice age. Everyone seems to live on a small island that still retains...more

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May 03, 2011 Monika rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi-fantasy

I love the premise of this book. It's the future. The mainland U.S. has frozen up in an ice age. Some citizens moved to the overcrowded island of America Pacifica: where regions mimic the regions of the U.S., the founder invented a solvent that erodes the land creating cave-ins and leads to addictions in many citizens, where attacks from the Western lands of Hawaii, etc. are imminent.

The main character, Darcy, is a teen you pulls you in immediately. You instantly feel for her lack of understand...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Sean the Bookonaut rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. America Pacifica is Anna North’s first novel. She’s a graduate of The University of Iowa’s ‘Writer’s Workshop’ (2 year residency program that delivers a Master of Fine Arts).

Dystopia with a capital D

America Pacifica is bleak. Now you may well say, “Come on Sean, it is a dystopian novel, it’s not supposed to be sunshine and roses” but to some of you who may have picked up Bacigalupi’s Shipbreaker (which to be fair is YA) and found it to be a nice adventure story with a ‘dystopian light’ backgroun...more

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May 12, 2011 Beth rated it 1 of 5 stars

I received this book from the Goodreads Giveaway. I really wanted to like it, but couldn't even bring myself to finish it. I found myself wanting to grab a red pen and start editing away. I was confused by the writing within the first page (2 nameless female characters were introduced in addition to the narrator in the first paragraph. The second paragraph refers to one of them as Sarah - I thought it was the first character mentioned, or a new fourth character, but it turned out to be the secon...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you pick it up, do so with the understanding that this is a post-Lost (the television show) vision of a dystopia. The idea that humanity has washed up on an island, attempting to recreate itself isn't new (hello, Lord of the Flies). But, there were two things I liked about this telling.

1. Darcy, the main character, is authentic. She doesn't know everyone's name. She doesn't function via superhuman strength. Her weaknesses, and the weaknesses in her world view, are as likely to save her as de...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Christopher Rex rated it 3 of 5 stars

An interesting new author with definite talent. I liked her writing and the story was easy-flowing, so I think that this author definitely has a future and could pump out some high-quality work. This story is an excellent "debut" (I think it is her "debut"), but it's not going to be anything earth-shattering that propels her to instant literary fame.

The story is a futuristic, apocolyptic novel - a genre I tend to enjoy. A 2nd Ice Age has enveloped North America and waves of survivors have migrat...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: finishedreviewcopy

Pacifica is a small island somewhere off the coast of L.A. and it may be the only place people still live, although they fear Hawaiians may still be out there and ready to attack. Pacifica is one of the few places still warm enough to live, because it's built on a volcano. The continent was freezing, temperatures so cold that 0 degrees would have felt like spring. The people of Pacifica, unless very wealthy live primarily off of jellyfish, caught far enough out in the ocean that they are not poi...more Pacifica is a small island somewhere off the coast of L.A. and it may be the only place people still live, although they fear Hawaiians may still be out there and ready to attack. Pacifica is one of the few places still warm enough to live, because it's built on a volcano. The continent was freezing, temperatures so cold that 0 degrees would have felt like spring. The people of Pacifica, unless very wealthy live primarily off of jellyfish, caught far enough out in the ocean that they are not poisoned by the solvent closer in. Solvent is a fuel, but also a drug, which a lot of the populace is addicted to. Ruling over all of this is the mysterious ruler, Tyson.

Darcy and her mother live in a shitty apartment building with a disgusting shared bathroom, work grueling weeks for little pay, and eat little beside cheesefood and jellyfish products. Still, they are relatively happy despite these problems, because they have each other; they don't need anything else. When Darcy's mom disappears, what little peace there was in her life goes too. She quits her job, gives up her apartment and focuses on trying to find the only person or thing that really matters to her in the world. She discovers along the way that her world is even more corrupt than she thought and that, even though her mom knew everything about her, there were some serious and huge things she didn't know about her mom.

I almost gave up on America Pacifica in the first chapter, which is unusual for me. I generally try to stick it out, which obviously I did, but I came so close to writing this book off (punned). The reason I did not is because of my dystopia obsession; I knew that, should I give up on it now, I would end up reading it later anyway. For the record, I am glad that I finished the book, and not just because I would have read it eventually.

Still, I did not love this one. It's a hard read, both because it's slow or confusing at times and because it's disgusting. Allow me to elaborate as best I can on the latter point. When I say disgusting, I don't mean gory or foul-mouthed, although there is a little bit of both. It's more that almost everything and everyone is dirty and living in filth and eating things people really shouldn't eat to the point that it made me uncomfortable. It was hard to read about it, even more so because I know people really do live like Darcy and her mother.

The dystopian society depicted here definitely feels real and terrifying and a sight different than the rather sweeter versions in most of the YA stories. Anna North was obviously inspired by the darkness in 1984 and Brave New World, not just trying to write a dystopia because people like me will read it purely for the label. However, North did not do a good job explaining how the society came about. The results are clear, but, so far as I noticed, there was no description as to what precipitated the massive environmental changes that lead to America Pacifica. Explaining how it came about is pretty crucial in a dystopia, especially one that's not liable to have a sequel, as that is not often done in adult dystopias and as it has the usual dystopia ending where it's not entirely clear what happened.

I also took minor issue with some of the basic ways this society functions. For example, what's with the jellyfish. I get that you can't eat food from near the island because of the solvent, but are there no fish further out? There must be. The solvent, too, is curious to me, because it is used as an energy source, a replacement for gasoline, but people also use it as a drug. Wouldn't something like gasoline kill these people? Then there's their diet, in general. Most of the poor folks get nothing but the jellyfish and cheesefood (whatever that is). There are mentions of life on the continent before the establishment of Pacifica, which include the fact that tons of people got scurvy. Why is this not happening on the island? Is it because they get the very occasional mango? Or is it because they get carried off by the strange parrot's disease first? And finally, nuns that use parrots to speak for them? Lol whut?

Regardless of all of my questions/concerns, America Pacifica did turn out to be an interesting and thought-provoking read. Oh, and, for those who haven't noticed, the cover is upside down. It took me a while to notice myself. The cover has nothing to do with anything in the book, but it is pretty and upside down.(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 Telly McGaha rated it 3 of 5 stars

What I liked about this dystopian novel was the premise upon which the entire book rests. Anna North has quite imaginatively created a half volcanic, half man-made Pacific island upon which refugees from America are living while a second ice age ravages North America. What started out as an Utopian escape from the mainland degenerates into a society rife with oppression and inequality.

North also does a great job creating believable characters and explaining their motivations and why they interac...more What I liked about this dystopian novel was the premise upon which the entire book rests. Anna North has quite imaginatively created a half volcanic, half man-made Pacific island upon which refugees from America are living while a second ice age ravages North America. What started out as an Utopian escape from the mainland degenerates into a society rife with oppression and inequality.

North also does a great job creating believable characters and explaining their motivations and why they interact with others the way they do. Their choices, though not entirely predictable, are all dictated by their core believes, which North weaves together nicely through the story's, at times, slow moving plot. Where she falls short, however, is in explaining how in the world the main character becomes a hero for this island nation.

[Spoiler alert follows]

Probably 70% of the book deals with the main character, Darcy, trying to find her missing mother. This is a journey that includes a lot of detours and rerouting, which at a point became frustrating for this reader. Along the way, she runs into someone who is pushing a revolutionary agenda, although we never get a real sense for just how involved he is in the movement, which is also frustrating since he becomes a major character upon which Darcy's evolution into a heroine depends. After collecting names and meeting with these people, the character does nothing more than piece together her mother's history, which, somehow, elevates her to a heroine. Other than this, she does nothing to really support "the cause," other than get arrested for trying to track down her mother. It almost feels as if North and her editors overlooked a major component of the plot, which is aggravating when you read over and over how "special" Darcy has become or how "heroic" she is or how everyone on the island suddenly reveres her.

As a result of this major faux pas, I wanted to give the book two stars. Since I really enjoyed the characters and, especially, setting, however, I gave America Pacfica an extra star.(less)

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May 06, 2011 Krystal C. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I'm not much of a reviewer, but I thought I'd put down my thoughts since I did get it in the Goodreads Giveaway.

Well, I thought the book was written very well. Sometimes I found it hard to picture the world Anna North created, especially all the Sea-whatever material, but I got by. There's a quite a lot of descriptions about areas the main character, Darcy, visits and most of them aren't pretty. I started to feel dirty when reading some parts, so I guess the author succeeded in that? I started t...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Samantha Allen rated it 2 of 5 stars

It was a really interesting concept that was, I think, a little poorly executed. North set up a really great dystopian-future world, and the story's plot, which is driven by the main character's need to find her mother, seemed promising. But about halfway through the book the world starts to dissolve a little -- it begins to feel too unrealistic, and my willing suspension of disbelief started to dwindle as I read it. Also the characters never fully materialized for me. They seemed like shadow pu...more

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