ithaca's review against another edition
3.0
The city and technology felt like a very plausible future and I liked the characters a lot. I just felt the ending was rushed and a lot of weird things were revealed that I'm not sure I fully understood.
kirtim's review against another edition
3.0
Not as engaging as I expected based on the debate on Canada Reads, but still a good sci-fi.
msvenner's review against another edition
3.0
This book is messed up. In fact, I don't think I understood it all. This is a scifi/dystopian novel. However the cyber enhancements and futuristic descriptions are a little too complicated and the plot twists a few too many times for me to keep up. There were some interesting themes and cool ideas but I think the author simply tried to jam too much into the story. I'm surprised this was a Canada Reads book.
zee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.25
Company Town is a dark and gritty novel following a socially-awkward but strong bodyguard associated with the United Sex Workers of Canada, set on a city-sized autonomous oil rig with futuristic tech off the coast of Newfoundland. The strengths were definitely the strong world building and dystopian future envisioned by Ashby. The weak points are choppy plot, characters suddenly introduced and then not mentioned again for hundreds of pages, and a VERY rushed (and sloppy?) ending. If the book had another 50 pages to properly wrap things up I would've rated it higher, but unfortunately the ending really soured this book for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Body shaming, Mass/school shootings, and Death
Moderate: Gore
danlemke's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
ginnikin's review against another edition
3.0
I'm conflicted about this. I loved it right up to the climax. I'm not great with mysteries, so I have no idea how well constructed this one was. But I loooooooove Hwa, and hot damn! the chemistry between her and Daniel. Mm-hmm. It's just the dénouement that didn't work for me. So yeah -1 star for that, which means I reeeaaally loved this.
Spoiler
I feel it undid all the growing that Hwa did to get to the decision she made. But at the same time, I'm just So Happy that she does get a happy ending and does get to spend lots of time with Joel and Daniel. It's hard. That's not even going into disability critique of that ending. (Also, um...what happened to that nuclear meltdown?)margaretefg's review against another edition
1.0
I don't usually read science fiction, so I struggled to grasp the world of the New Arcadia oil rig off Newfoundland. The main character, Hwa, is tough and persistent but has blind spots (explicitly mentioned and other). So it's never clear who among the other characters might turn out to be the evil plotters and exactly what the plot is about.
jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
3.0
Good read. Brutal plot. I didn't follow everything and some things seemed to fall through the cracks. The best part of this book was the insights into potential future trends and how they might play out.
dessa's review against another edition
3.0
Really sharp in places, really spongy in others. This book was a mightily cool example of Canadian dystopia - autonomous oil rigs turned into giant, floating, industrial cities? Yes please. Nods to maritimer accents? Yes please. Unionized sex workers with body guards and some modicum of social respect? Yes, yes, yes. Pointed critiques of capitalism and big business and white men who want to live forever? SIGN. ME. UP.
But also I would really like to meet a strong female protagonist in YA who doesn't have body issues, and doesn't have those issues resolved by LITERALLY removing the problematic features of her body. I also found it hugely improbably that these body issues - a giant birthmark, or what Hwa calls "the stain" - kept her disinterested in sex, completely, especially when as a fighter she takes great pride in the abilities of her body. If you want to have a virgin heroine, that's fine, I'm fine with heroines deciding not to have sex. But it just seemed incredulous to me that she would ignore that feature of her body so completely until tidily meeting the RIGHT man who omg SEES her for all that she IS. Ugh. No. Girl, you don't need a man to validate you, and I think we both know that.
But also I would really like to meet a strong female protagonist in YA who doesn't have body issues, and doesn't have those issues resolved by LITERALLY removing the problematic features of her body. I also found it hugely improbably that these body issues - a giant birthmark, or what Hwa calls "the stain" - kept her disinterested in sex, completely, especially when as a fighter she takes great pride in the abilities of her body. If you want to have a virgin heroine, that's fine, I'm fine with heroines deciding not to have sex. But it just seemed incredulous to me that she would ignore that feature of her body so completely until tidily meeting the RIGHT man who omg SEES her for all that she IS. Ugh. No. Girl, you don't need a man to validate you, and I think we both know that.
megan_prairierose's review against another edition
2.0
Ugh. I don't understand why this book was on Canada reads. I found the writing to be just ok, the plot convaluted and honestly slow moving. I didn't think the ending fit into the rest of the book. I'm left confused and needing to start another book right away to get this out of my head.