Review - Outside by Shalini Boland, as part of the Shattered Worlds boxed set

Outside by Shalini BolandGenre: Dystopian
Reviewer: Sally Sparrow

  
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 Book One in The Outside Series.

The future is divided by Perimeters: high-security gated communities where life goes on as normal. If you’re inside you’re lucky. If you’re outside, life expectancy takes a nose dive.

Riley is fortunate to have been born on the right side of the fence. But her life of privilege comes crashing down when someone breaks through and murders her sister.

She forsakes her own safety to go in search of the killer. Luc decides to go with her otherwise she’ll be dead before she’s past the security gate. But what awaits her outside is more unbelievable that she ever imagined.

Cut to the present day where Eleanor's world is falling apart. This time next year, civilisation won't be quite so civilized...  


***contains some spoilers***
I read this book two weeks ago and I still haven’t decided if I like it. I want to like it, and I  don’t dislike it, but I can’t definitively say I like it, either. I am just...undecided.
For starters, it is dystopian. Generally speaking that is not my favorite genre. Real life is scary and depressing so I prefer the fantasies I indulge in to be more upbeat and humorous.
Second, this book is actually a dystopian coming-of-age story, with a side of murder mystery and romance. But not at all once. It starts with a murder, moves to coming-of-age, sprinkles in the slightest amount of romance, and then at the very end goes back to the murder. It has a lot going on for one little book.
Third, there is a dual-storyline issue. Two girls, two different time periods, two seemingly unrelated lives. First we meet Riley. She lives in a post-apocalyptic gated community secured by armed guards. Several chapters later we meet Eleanor, who lives in pre-apocalyptic England. Both girls are British teenagers, but that seems to be all they have in common. They don’t even get equal billing. Riley gets at least three times as many chapters on her story than does Eleanor.
Also, there was no obvious system to the inclusion of Eleanor’s chapters. The randomness of her story, and the lack of parallel between the two girls’ lives, detracted from the flow of Riley’s tale. Riley’s part starts with her sister getting murdered, her convincing the neighbor boy to travel across the country looking for the murderer, and the two of them sneaking out of the compound on a road trip with machine guns. Eleanor’s part is normal teenage girl angst - mean girl friend, choosing between boyfriends, that kind of thing. The lives of these two girls are too different to meld together in this manner.
In hindsight I can see what the author was trying to do in weaving these two stories together, but instead of creating a multi-leveled tapestry, it read more like someone working on two different blankets at the time same; knit the green blanket for 40 minutes, then knit the orange blanket for 10 minutes. There was no cohesiveness. When they are eventually tied together, it is in a conversation at the end of the book. I think it would have worked better if the author had shown us the rest of Eleanor’s story rather than telling it in a dialog as she does.
All of that aside, Riley’s is a different and interesting coming-of-age story. There is nothing like the cross-country trip, without adults, that encourages people to grow up. She and her friend Luc have adventures aplenty - they were attacked, robbed, swindled, imprisoned, rescued - and meet all kinds of people while doing so. Both Riley and Luc are likable, relatable people, and it was easy to empathize with them in their struggles.
Eleanor, on the other hand, I can’t stand. If there is any one character in a book that I want to suffer, it is her. I want all of the pain she caused everyone else to be inflicted on her. Does karma work for fictional characters? She is in love with one boy, but he gets killed so she ends up marrying a different boy. Later on she discovers her first love is still alive so cheats on her husband of 15 years with her teenage sweetheart. Who does that?? Eleanor is selfish and delusional and I just want to punch her in the face.
As for the murder - remember the murder? - that is solved in the epilogue. The entire point of the story - the original premise, the catalyst of Riley’s cross-country trip - is resolved in the epilogue. I was stunned by this. Did the author just kill off a sister to give Riley and Luc a reason to leave their sheltered existence?
Despite these annoyances, I did enjoy Riley and Luc’s story. They are really great characters - smart, moral, brave. However, there is a sequel which I do not anticipate reading. Eleanor is sure to be included in that one somehow, and I will be happy to never read about her again.
3.5 stars