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Swain lifts the idea of pills that regulate emotions from The Giver, and adds that they also regulate hunger. But The Giver is about proving that people need emotions, even the bad ones - Swain takes it for granted, which is a huge mistake. It's the reason everybody makes fun of this premise, and that I don't buy that this world is worse than ours.

Also, Thalia is flawless and inhuman and the writing is awful.

I'm starting to enjoy this more. This is definitely a very thoughtful play, and I feel like Shakespeare put a lot of effort into the characterization and ideas in the philosophical scenes.

The writing and dialogue are both very evocative. I'm still waiting to see where the story will go, so I'm not exactly excited about that yet, but this is certainly a very well-written novel.

Much like Stella by Starlight, another book I reviewed this year, I wish this book had been around when I was a kid. I think I would've had a better understanding of racism and been a more empathetic person if I had read this back then.

Large portions of the worldbuilding - particularly the malls and the classrooms - are lifted directly from Jennifer Government. I already disliked that book, and Swain uses the same conceits to even worse effect.

Also, this is legitimately bothering me: why does hearing the names of food Thalia has never seen trigger hunger in her? Why does she just innately know what chicken is? That's now how brains work!

So far, this is actually kind of underwhelming. Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth were both roughly as interesting as I suspected they'd be based on their premises, but this is a little boring so far.

Also, Polonious is very annoying. I can't wait for him to get stabbed.

I don't want to assume too early, but if this book keeps going in this direction, I'm about ready to declare it the best book I've been assigned since starting high school. I am loving every second of this so far.

This isn't a perfect book or anything, but Red is such an engaging character that he keeps the whole thing held together. I like that he's flawed, and that when he messes up it has consequences, but he still has strong motivations and isn't really a bad person. He's a great narrator for kids to read about.

Swain has yet to convince me that this world isn't VASTLY better than the real one. Who cares if the pleasure of food is gone? Starvation has been ended, and almost everyone is in extremely good health! And I don't see at all how interactions on the InterWeb are supposed to be fake, mainly because Swain doesn't show us these interactions at all. (It's the same basic mistake that Fahrenheit 451 made.)

I keep noticing famous Shakespeare quotes. The general pattern is that they're much less impressive in context.

God, my edition has too many forwards. Don't get me wrong, I find critical analysis fascinating, but if I wanted that, I would buy a book critically analyzing Hurston, not the book itself.

Wow. That scene was very well-written and suspenseful. I didn't think I was going to enjoy this, but I'm really starting to think that I underestimated Erskine. The plot is still kind of meandering, but it's all coming together rather nicely. The only problem is that, while I like Erskine's writing style, it needed a little more line editing. Other than that, I'm really liking this.

Things I hate about this book:
-Awkward imagery
-Dialogue tags
-FutureSlang
-Nonsensical worldbuilding
-Dated ideas of futuristic technology
-Thalia is a special snowflake
-Surreal dialogue
-Why is this world supposedly evil?

This is SO BAD, you guys, to the point where I'm worried about forgetting problems with it. This is seriously challenging Fahrenheit 451 for the title of Worst Dystopia I've Read.

Man, I am out of practice reading Elizabethan language. I can understand it, but I have to read very slowly for it to make any sense. But this seems alright so far, although the opening isn't as riveting as the ones from Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth.

This genre has an uphill battle to make me like it, but honestly, this isn't that bad. Yeah, the plot is kind of unfocused, but the writing is pretty good, and I like most of the characters. This isn't necessarily my cup of tea, but I can at least acknowledge that Erskine definitely worked hard on it.

I wrote an opinion piece for my blog about YA dystopias and the essay A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. If anyone's curious, here's a link: http://thelowercasegimmick.tumblr.com...

Wheelan: Anti-globalization westerners claim to represent poor people from developing countries, but ignore what they actually say! Look, here are a bunch of westerners who agree with me!

That said, Wheelan is at least trying a lot harder to sympathize with poor people than he did throughout the rest of this book.

I will say, beneath all the awkward prose and excessive infodumping, there is a good book somewhere. I like Kelpie as a character, and I can see the darker, more atmospheric book that Larbalestier was trying to write. But so far - and I can't believe I'm saying this about the author of Liar - it's just too conventional for its own good. There's not (yet) enough to make it stand out, apart from the setting.

Red's dad reminds me of Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird in how ridiculously perfect he is. He's not racist! He doesn't beat his kids! He hires intellectually disabled people! This book would ring a lot more true to me if he had some sort of flaws.

Also, I really hope this book ends with Red learning a lesson and not Thomas, because it is going to be very painful otherwise.

This writing is really choppy and lazy. Easily the worst prose I've ever seen in a Justine Larbalestier book. This is the first of her books with an interesting premise that I've seen since Liar, so I was a little hopeful going in, but already, I'm disappointed.

I picked this book up assuming it was YA, and I almost definitely wouldn't have read it if I'd known it was MG. I have a prejudice against MG books set in rural areas that deal with death. Maybe that's unfair on my part, but I've yet to read a good book that fits that description. But this book isn't awful so far, so maybe this book isn't hopeless.

I guess macroeconomics makes me less mad than microeconomics. It's been a while since I've really strongly disagreed with Wheelan. But the next chapter is subtitled, 'The Good News About Sweat Shops', so maybe my rage will be back soon.

The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever by Daniel H. Wilson: 1/5 Badly written, bad characterization, unoriginal.

Skullpocket by Nathan Ballingrud: 4/5 Narration a bit confusing, characters and ideas very good.

I Can See Right Through You by Kelly Link: 2/5 Good ideas, bad prose and confusing worldbuilding.

How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman: 3/5 Good protagonist and prose, forgettable story.

Windows by Susan Palwick: 4/5 A little cheesy, but still pretty well-written.

The Thing About Shapes to Come by Adam Troy-Castro: 4/5 Good magical realism and thought-provoking premise.

We Are the Cloud by Sam J. Miller: 4/5 Rushed story, good characters and writing.

On Safari by Mike Resnic: 2/5 It had its moments, but most of the story failed to be funny and just ended up being cringe-worthy.

Chicken Little by Cory Doctrow: 2/5 (DNF) The worldbuilding and character development were shoved on us too quickly, and the premise didn't totally make sense to me.

This is admittedly getting me kind of interested in economics, of only because Wheelan often doesn't back his ideas up enough for me. I want to see someone talk about these things in more detail.

Each to Each by Seanan McGuire: 1/5 Writing overwrought, worldbuilding overwhelming and confusing.

Ogres of East Africa by Sofia Samatar: 4/5 A little underwhelming, but the writing and character development were excellent.

Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology by Theodora Goss: 3/5 Good character development, story too weird.

Sleeper by Jo Walton: 2/5 Worldbuilding and character lacking.

The Flight of the Denartesetel Radichan by Sheri S. Tepper: 1/5 Tries to establish way too much worldbuilding in way too short of a time, and ends up being a confusing mess.

The [Backspace] Merchants by Neil Gaiman: 4/5 Creative and well-written. Like most people, I know Gaiman mainly for his fiction, but he's actually a really good poet.

I don't really know enough about the stock market to disagree with much in this chapter. And, admittedly, Wheelan is a pretty funny guy, and his explanations of complicated concepts are clear and concise. This isn't the worst thing ever, I just disagree with most of what I've had prior exposure to.

Tortoiseshell Cats are Not Refundable by Cat Rambo: 3/5 Not enough time to explore a very good idea, character development weak.

The Bad Graft by Karen Russell: 2/5 Very distancing writing, and the stakes are too level for there to be nay tension.

A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i by Alaya Dawn Johnson: 2/5 Good idea, poor execution - too many bland characters made it hard to follow.