I'm going to start with a disclaimer, BECAUSE THOSE ARE SO MUCH FUN!
Disclaimer: I'm lacking in knowledge about history. I have a general grasp of subjects, but there's something about history in general that makes my brain enter, "DO NOT CARE" mode and distracts me with daydreams of novels I'd like to write. So when I come across historical fiction that is good, I'm surprised that I'm able to read all of it. The same with historical texts at all.
There are two subjects my brain DOES NOT like and ADHD refuses to be better at: History and Geography.
I don't get it either.
With that in mind, here is an amazon summary, "In Sally Gardner’s stunning novel, set in a ruthless regime, an unlikely teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing.
What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell — who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright — sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
I'm going to disclaim the crap out of this.
I read this with the impression that the 'Motherland' was code for 'Russia'. I was also under the impression that this book took place during some World War. Also, the space race. It was all twisted together with a hint of 'living in extreme oppression' as people were sent to live in different zones for different reasons.
I'm also going to disclaim that it's a very graphic book.
There's also images through out the pages of the different stages of death, fly life/death cycle, and a rat dying etc. Very graphic.
I can't really say anything more about the content of the book than the summary already said, and the summary actually did a very good job this time. I will say that the book starts out a bit slow, I believe it did so with the purpose of slowly tangling you into the world.
I'm also going to say that I thought the world of the book functioned as a very vicious character onto itself.
The book is very disturbing, creepy, and chilling on many levels but with short chapters it's hard not to turn the pages to find out what happens next.
I'm still a little creeped out.
The style of writing feels like an older way of writing poetry almost. The narration has a very clear cut description of the events that are happening but runs along the line of using describers such as 'the situation was pregnant' (no that's not a quote from the book, that's an example from my head). Describing the situation as pregnant is very ambiguous and also has a theme of primal nature to it.
That's kind of the book.
It's very ambiguous with a lot of primal nature about it, and often the people within the story are described with animal characteristics.
The main character does refer to maggot meat which I assume (again, so much ambiguity) to mean that they're going to wind up dead. Essentially serving as a meal for the maggots.
Yeah.
....
Happy reading!
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