All These Things I've Done (Birthright, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Feb 23, 2012 Steph rated it liked it

Shelves: series-book1, no-para-elements, series-ongoing, author-웃, age-group-ya-na, year-read-2012

All These Things I've Done is the second book I have read by Gabrielle Zevin. I enjoyed Elsewhere enough to check this book out from the library. All These Things refers to the things Anya, the sixteen year old daughter of deceased crime boss, Leonyd Balanchine (Think Willy Wonka + Godfather), does to keep her 12 year-old sister, Natty and 17 year-old brother, Leo, Jr. safe. Her belief is that in order to do that they must keep their heads down and avoid involvement in The Family business, o All These Things I've Done is the second book I have read by Gabrielle Zevin. I enjoyed Elsewhere enough to check this book out from the library. All These Things refers to the things Anya, the sixteen year old daughter of deceased crime boss, Leonyd Balanchine (Think Willy Wonka + Godfather), does to keep her 12 year-old sister, Natty and 17 year-old brother, Leo, Jr. safe. Her belief is that in order to do that they must keep their heads down and avoid involvement in The Family business, otherwise they may end up dead like her mother and father. Because chocolate and caffeine are illegal, in 2083, the Balanchine Family, who are in the chocolate business, are similar to today's crime families. Meaning, no matter what Anya tries to do she and her family are Balanchines, therefore sooner or later a choice must be made - she's either in or she's out.

The world Gabrielle has created is an interesting one:
☞ Chocolate & caffeine are illegal
☞ Food and other misc items such as paper are rationed
☞ Water is scarce and expensive
☞ Alcohol consumption is legal, at any age
☞ Gov't is corrupt & mob families are chocolate distributors

So much potential! However, there were some bits throughout that were somewhat repetitive and could have been cut, IMO. The story was a quick read for me. I really enjoyed learning more about this crazy world and all the things Anya faces each day.

I found it interesting that, even very early on in the story, Anya says that she hates her father and does not want to be like him but she quotes him often and is more like him than she is willing to admit. The other members of the family see her father in her as well. And, although she tries to be a "normal" 16 year-old it just isn't possible. Throw into the mix the fact that somehow her ex-boyfriend has been poisoned by chocolate bars, given to him by her, and her new boyfriend happens to be the son of the new assistant DA, who asks her not to date his son because of the potential backlash from dating a mafia daughter.

I am interested to see how Anya grows in the next book. By the end of this book, which was thankfully free of any major cliffhangers, she has made certain decisions that will surely change her life in major ways - will they be for the better or worse for her and her siblings?

PS: If you remove the dustcover, you'll notice the Balanchine Dark Chocolate bar wrapper, Anya's favorite. ...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Samantha rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, happy-i-read, ya

There's no doubt that this one is a little slow to start, but the story is interesting enough to recover. Anya is the daughter of a crime boss that was murdered when she was very young. Time and circumstances have made Anya the main caretaker for her siblings and invalid grandmother. When the family business of producing illegal (in the US, anyway) chocolate goes awry, Anya is left to try and pick up the pieces and take over her life before it's done for her.
Zevin does an interesting job of crea ...more

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