siavahda's review
3.0
I don’t usually go for novellas, because if I love a story then I want it to linger – 300 pages is generally too short for me to properly enjoy. I don’t usually like dystopias either. However, Every In Between features a polyamorous bisexual young woman of colour, and neither of those qualities – bisexuality or polyamory – are common enough for me to pass over.
(This is a tragedy. There needs to be more polyamory! More bisexuality! Take note, publishers. I expect better from you by this time next year).
Every In Between actually manages to be a very good length. Despite being only approximately 88 pages as an ebook, I felt that if it were any longer, that extra length would only be padding; Yellowboy writes concisely, without a single wasted word, and although the prose isn’t up to my usual flowery, almost-purple standard, there are still moments of lovely brilliance.
"I wanted to devour her vocabulary."
Every, the main character, is, at the beginning of the story, a young woman who has never been outside. Humans have been confined to roofed cities, told that the outside has been completely destroyed by the effects of the Great War (later revealed as likely to have been nuclear or atomic). There are other cities, but only those with special privileges are permitted to travel. For everyone else, it’s a matter of being ‘placed’ – given a life-long task that fits your genetic predisposition. Those who cannot be placed are executed, and asking questions, as Every does, is a sure fire way to be deemed unplaceable.
Every doesn’t care. She runs away, and eventually stumbles upon a hole in the wall. Which is when the story really starts.
I adored how Every didn’t know the names of anything. Her description of the outdoors is slightly confusing because of it – she doesn’t know the words for dirt or grass, and she thinks the sky is another, higher ceiling, like the one in her city – but intensely believable. It’s the kind of thing many authors stumble over, but Yellowboy manages to deftly avoid any plot– or worldbuilding-holes while displaying the hypocritical inconsistencies of those who run the cities.
But Every herself, more than the world she finds herself in, is what kept me reading. Although many YA protagonists are strong-willed, Every stands out for her uncompromising principles, and her ability to reason through the incredible luck that has happened to her to wonder why others in the same situation can’t have what she does. Once freed and tentatively adopted into a tribe of ‘outsiders’, she doesn’t rest until she wrests concessions from the group’s leader, allowing her to attempt rescuing other orphaned young people from within her city. Nor does she think even this is satisfactory; she makes no attempt to state that this small effort is enough -
"I know rescuing orphans is a bandage wrapped around a seeping wound. The disease is deep in the marrow, in a place I never could call home."
I found this fascinating, this grim determination to do what she could, even though she knows it isn’t enough, can never be enough. It hints at a morality that the real world might do well to pay attention to: the idea that any good deed should be pursued, even if large problems remain. That a small act, no matter how small, is not worthless.
I did not, however, fully believe the romance. I found Every and Ally’s relationship much more believable than Every’s romance with Carduus, which seemed to come out of nowhere for no apparent reason. That was extremely disappointing, since it was the polyamory that really sold me on a story I wouldn’t normally read, but Yellowboy still gets kudos for writing a polyamorous relationship – one that doesn’t begin or include any cheating, and one which is immediately accepted as valid by all the surrounding cast. It’s positive representation of a very under-represented sexuality/lifestyle choice, and these things are very important.
And it’s not at all a bad little story. It’s very readable and good for a dull day, and I very much hope Yellowboy returns to Every’s world at some point. I think I might have been happier if the story had been made into a full novel, because that might have allowed for more time for Every and Carduus’ relationship to believably develop, and that was the weakest part of the novella for me. But in all other respects, Every In Between is a very respectable short story, and I have no qualms in recommending it.
(This is a tragedy. There needs to be more polyamory! More bisexuality! Take note, publishers. I expect better from you by this time next year).
Every In Between actually manages to be a very good length. Despite being only approximately 88 pages as an ebook, I felt that if it were any longer, that extra length would only be padding; Yellowboy writes concisely, without a single wasted word, and although the prose isn’t up to my usual flowery, almost-purple standard, there are still moments of lovely brilliance.
"I wanted to devour her vocabulary."
Every, the main character, is, at the beginning of the story, a young woman who has never been outside. Humans have been confined to roofed cities, told that the outside has been completely destroyed by the effects of the Great War (later revealed as likely to have been nuclear or atomic). There are other cities, but only those with special privileges are permitted to travel. For everyone else, it’s a matter of being ‘placed’ – given a life-long task that fits your genetic predisposition. Those who cannot be placed are executed, and asking questions, as Every does, is a sure fire way to be deemed unplaceable.
Every doesn’t care. She runs away, and eventually stumbles upon a hole in the wall. Which is when the story really starts.
I adored how Every didn’t know the names of anything. Her description of the outdoors is slightly confusing because of it – she doesn’t know the words for dirt or grass, and she thinks the sky is another, higher ceiling, like the one in her city – but intensely believable. It’s the kind of thing many authors stumble over, but Yellowboy manages to deftly avoid any plot– or worldbuilding-holes while displaying the hypocritical inconsistencies of those who run the cities.
But Every herself, more than the world she finds herself in, is what kept me reading. Although many YA protagonists are strong-willed, Every stands out for her uncompromising principles, and her ability to reason through the incredible luck that has happened to her to wonder why others in the same situation can’t have what she does. Once freed and tentatively adopted into a tribe of ‘outsiders’, she doesn’t rest until she wrests concessions from the group’s leader, allowing her to attempt rescuing other orphaned young people from within her city. Nor does she think even this is satisfactory; she makes no attempt to state that this small effort is enough -
"I know rescuing orphans is a bandage wrapped around a seeping wound. The disease is deep in the marrow, in a place I never could call home."
I found this fascinating, this grim determination to do what she could, even though she knows it isn’t enough, can never be enough. It hints at a morality that the real world might do well to pay attention to: the idea that any good deed should be pursued, even if large problems remain. That a small act, no matter how small, is not worthless.
I did not, however, fully believe the romance. I found Every and Ally’s relationship much more believable than Every’s romance with Carduus, which seemed to come out of nowhere for no apparent reason. That was extremely disappointing, since it was the polyamory that really sold me on a story I wouldn’t normally read, but Yellowboy still gets kudos for writing a polyamorous relationship – one that doesn’t begin or include any cheating, and one which is immediately accepted as valid by all the surrounding cast. It’s positive representation of a very under-represented sexuality/lifestyle choice, and these things are very important.
And it’s not at all a bad little story. It’s very readable and good for a dull day, and I very much hope Yellowboy returns to Every’s world at some point. I think I might have been happier if the story had been made into a full novel, because that might have allowed for more time for Every and Carduus’ relationship to believably develop, and that was the weakest part of the novella for me. But in all other respects, Every In Between is a very respectable short story, and I have no qualms in recommending it.
More...