Ele Fountain
Teoksen Refugee 87 tekijä
Tekijän teokset
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Sukupuoli
- female
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Palkinnot
Tilastot
- Teokset
- 6
- Jäseniä
- 100
- Suosituimmuussija
- #190,120
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 4.3
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 6
- ISBN:t
- 39
- Kielet
- 1
There are hardly any character descriptions, so readers have almost complete freedom over what the characters look like. The downside of this, is this means the rest of the book has a lack of descriptive text. The story is set in a contemporary time, when there has been an outbreak and everyone has to stay at home up until the age of fourteen, when their immune system can handle being among the rest of society. Then, the children go to boarding school, where they learn both technology and non-digital resources. The world is not described, so the reader has the freedom to decide how the world looks as well as the digital devices.
The story is written in first-person and styled as a diary set in the present, so accounts are told in real-time. Jess, the protagonist, writes from their point of view: anything Jess hears, sees, thinks, and knows, the reader is informed. This is great since the mystery unfolds at the same time, and if Jess is in the dark, so are we. The secrets revealed are also made known to her to us; therefore, we miss nothing and anything we should know as a reader, we know. This works well if readers want a slow-burn read, following the passing days and lessons taking place at the school before the action takes place a long way into the book.
Watching life from just Jess’ point of view means not knowing more about the other characters: Mae, Violet, Finn, and Jack. The whole world revolves around Jess’ hardship and getting to the bottom of her sister Chloe’s increase in medication costs. This is all we need to know as readers: following one person’s journey in a newly developed way of living. The other characters are ‘supporting cast’ to help with Jess’ dilemma. That being said, I’d personally love to see extracts of the other characters’ lives during the ordeal: Mae’s illegal school, Violet’s realisation of who Jess is, Finn’s experience away from Jess and her family – as well as his own, since nothing much is said about his life outside Jess’ circle – and Jack’s background. I’m glad these aren’t written into the story since this is Jess’ experience, not theirs. That being said, the book is dialogue-heavy. We read both Jess' thoughts and conversations she has with the other characters. The journey to Finn's school contains the most action-based text; thus, it feels thrown in deliberately to break away from dialogue and to carry the story forward. Nonetheless, everything that happens has to happen in order for Jess to carry out her plan; nothing is included unnecessarily.
The ending does raise questions. The book revolves around one person trying to exploit a system who are taking advantage of the outbreak. And since the book is written like a diary, some information are omitted, just like in a real diary. Therefore, what happened to the music competition? It is established that Jess has succeeded in cutting the medical bill because they are spending money on something else - what is that something else?… (lisätietoja)