A review by maedo
America Pacifica by Anna North
3.0
Think Winter's Bone crossed with Ship Breaker, spiked with a little bit of The Hunger Games, and you have a good idea of what is excellent and maybe not so excellent about America Pacifica. The not so excellent thing is that because the market is so heavily saturated with dystopian worlds and headstrong girls in search of justice and/or their family members, this will seem like so many things you've already read and loved before. Perhaps in contrast it will fall short. You might be tempted to put it down within the first 100 pages.
But if you give Darcy's story time to grow on you, it will. If you have doubts that she is as indomitable as Ree Dolly, you must read to the ending. Anna North's prose seems almost styleless and confusing at first, as the post-apocalyptic world is being introduced, but given time to grow it takes on a crisp, understated beauty (again you must read to the ending).
Perhaps the best thing about the book is that its revolutionaries are vulnerable, very human, a balm to the flat characters of Ship Breaker. It's rare to read about revolutionaries that are defined as much by their susceptibility to being squashed as they are by their noble ideals. In fact, this is why I usually don't like reading political stories. But America Pacifica manages to be as much about people as it is about politics.
Fans of any of the books mentioned above should enjoy it. I really did.
But if you give Darcy's story time to grow on you, it will. If you have doubts that she is as indomitable as Ree Dolly, you must read to the ending. Anna North's prose seems almost styleless and confusing at first, as the post-apocalyptic world is being introduced, but given time to grow it takes on a crisp, understated beauty (again you must read to the ending).
Perhaps the best thing about the book is that its revolutionaries are vulnerable, very human, a balm to the flat characters of Ship Breaker. It's rare to read about revolutionaries that are defined as much by their susceptibility to being squashed as they are by their noble ideals. In fact, this is why I usually don't like reading political stories. But America Pacifica manages to be as much about people as it is about politics.
Fans of any of the books mentioned above should enjoy it. I really did.