Book Review: Inside Out by Maria Synder
Inside Out by Maria Synder
Inside Out
by Maria Snyder
— — A Book Review by Beth Barany
Keep Your Head Down.
Don’t Get Noticed.
Or Else.
I’m Trella. I’m a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I’ve got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution.
Trella is a 17 year-old who has only known white walls, tubes, square hallways, care mates, and a life of drudgery.
And she’s not like the rest of those sheep, all the others who live on her level, under those who have more and better lives who control their lives from the upper levels.
She only has one friend, a few years old, a friend who believes in a better life, a better way, and has always looked out for Trella. But Trella only wants to keep to herself, sleeping in the tubes and air ducts, and away from the crowded and smelly quarters of her bunk room.
Trella immediately gets hooked into going into the upper levels, if only to disprove new messiahs’ theory about secrets. She’s a cynic, not believing in a better life or really in her fellow human beings.
From many of the hints dropped early on I guessed that this world is set in a distant future. And while it’s not a dystopia ala The Hunger Games, I definitely got the impression that there was no democracy in this world, and a clear demarcation between the haves and have-nots.
So I’d classify this book as science fiction.
I liked that Trella was spunky and resourceful, and understood her cynicism and need to distance herself from others. I immediately sympathized with her.
Once she forays into the upper level looking for and finding the contraband material she sets off a chain of events that will change everything forever.
I look forward to reading the sequel!
Note: I purchased this copy.
About Maria Synder: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/index.php
About Inside Out: http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Harlequin-Teen-Maria-Snyder/dp/037321006X. Read an Excerpt here: http://www.mariavsnyder.com/books/InsideOut.php
About Book reviewer
Beth Barany started her journalism career writing book reviews and doing author interviews, long before she got the courage up to write her own books. She’s been writing book reviews for nearly 20 years. If you’d like her to review your YA novel, click here for her review policy.
