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megelizabeth's review against another edition
2.0
This is an interesting and clever, if pretentious, book, with a strong sense of time and place, and one which explores some important themes. It's a bleak story written in an often distant and detached way, but it still manages to be haunting and at times deeply personal. There's also a bunch of great commentary on class, wealth, and politics.
However, this book really ended up not being a good time for me overall. The ending is rushed and confusing, it's really written more like an adult than a YA book, and at times it reads a bit too much like a history textbook, but those are far from my main issues with it. There's just far too much uncritically harmful content for me to have been able to enjoy it more. Racial slurs are used on multiple occasions, gay men are compared to paedophiles, and there are some irresponsible and truly disgusting messages about sex, assault, and consent. Particularly as this is supposedly YA, even if it doesn't read like it for the most part, these problematic elements cannot and should not be ignored.
However, this book really ended up not being a good time for me overall. The ending is rushed and confusing, it's really written more like an adult than a YA book, and at times it reads a bit too much like a history textbook, but those are far from my main issues with it. There's just far too much uncritically harmful content for me to have been able to enjoy it more. Racial slurs are used on multiple occasions, gay men are compared to paedophiles, and there are some irresponsible and truly disgusting messages about sex, assault, and consent. Particularly as this is supposedly YA, even if it doesn't read like it for the most part, these problematic elements cannot and should not be ignored.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault