Inside Out | Maria V. Snyder | Review

Inside Out | Maria V. Snyder | Review

• Wednesday, 24 April 2013

“Exactly. You can shoulder all the blame and become a martyr. Provided anyone knows what or who you're martyring for. Or you can accept that some things are important enough to fight for and realize there will be sacrifices along the way.” - Maria V. Snyder - Inside Out

Trella lives in a dystopian world where she's a scrub. That means that she's a nobody (as she puts it) keeping things clean for those who live on the Upper levels. Trella's life consist of doing her job and trying to keep out of trouble. But that all changes when she without asking for it finds herself being the leader of a secret and dangerous rebellion.

So let's start this review with talking about the characters in Inside Out. Or let's at least talk about the main character Trella. I think she makes a pretty decent main character. I never fall in love with her, but she's interesting enough for me to care. I think that's a pretty good because you can't expect to fall in love with every character that comes your way. But I just have one question; What is it with the dystopian heroines and their issues with showing emotions? Just saying, could someone give me a suggestion of a dystopian novel with an emotional wreck as the heroine? That would be pretty darn exciting!

The world-building in Inside Out is also pretty satisfying. I really appreciate the detail and work that Maria V. Snyder has put into building this dystopian world. But there's one thing I just don't seem to get my head around and that is the way they calculate birthdays. I never seem to get how old anyone is. But it might just be me, I've never been that good with numbers. I also want to give the author some credit for the ending! I didn't expect that at all! I have to say that I'm usually not that easily surprised, but you got me Maria! Well done!

Good characters and good world-building? That kind of sounds like a done deal? No, it's not that easy my friends. I did truly enjoy this book and appreciated Maria V. Snyder's writing. But I didn't love it and I didn't find it amazing. To be honest, I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I can make a decent guess. Even though I think Snyder made a great job with the world-building it's not really a world that I personally feel drawn into. I felt a bit claustrophobic and I guess that's the whole point with this book but I still missed the trees, the streets and the sky! Oh gosh, I'm starting to sound a bit too romantic over here but I guess you get my point.

That being said I think this is a good book and I really recommend it to fans of young adult dystopians! It's a well-written, fast paced and fun read!Inside Out easily gets 3,5/5 stars (if there would've been a few more trees and if Trella would've been a bit more emotional I would've given it 4 stars).

This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.