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A review by cornmaven
The Young World by Chris Weitz
4.0
Post apocalyptic tale written by a Hollywood guy steeped in screenplays and visual imagery. I really liked it, especially because the characters are, while stereotypical as a group, ones you can care about and root for. My favorite of course is Brainbox.
When you set the story in NYC and when you make the kids embark on a dangerous journey through it to find a cure for the virus that has killed everyone except teens (and they die at 18), it makes for an exciting story. I am sure Weitz envisioned this for the big screen, and I actually liked the insertion of screenplay dialogue elements in the story. Told alternately by literate Jefferson and street wise/snarky Donna, you get two different perspectives and two very distinct voices.
As per usual it's the first of a trilogy, but actually you could stop at the end and be satisfied. Unfortunately, the story won't stand the test of time because Weitz infuses it with enough pop culture references that ten years from know, readers won't recognize them. But, I really really appreciated his smackdown of Fifty Shades of Grey.
There are some ponderable questions in here about what it means to live, whether you should always hope, how do you live in the moment without the moment degrading to disgusting behavior, how the fabric of society is very thin and hanging by a thread. I hope that teens can appreciate the hierarchy of needs stuff and the irony of all of their modern day gadgets really being worthless in the final analysis.
Rough language is part of the landscape in this story, so it didn't feel totally out of place. And I am interested enough in the story to continue to the next installment.
When you set the story in NYC and when you make the kids embark on a dangerous journey through it to find a cure for the virus that has killed everyone except teens (and they die at 18), it makes for an exciting story. I am sure Weitz envisioned this for the big screen, and I actually liked the insertion of screenplay dialogue elements in the story. Told alternately by literate Jefferson and street wise/snarky Donna, you get two different perspectives and two very distinct voices.
As per usual it's the first of a trilogy, but actually you could stop at the end and be satisfied. Unfortunately, the story won't stand the test of time because Weitz infuses it with enough pop culture references that ten years from know, readers won't recognize them. But, I really really appreciated his smackdown of Fifty Shades of Grey.
There are some ponderable questions in here about what it means to live, whether you should always hope, how do you live in the moment without the moment degrading to disgusting behavior, how the fabric of society is very thin and hanging by a thread. I hope that teens can appreciate the hierarchy of needs stuff and the irony of all of their modern day gadgets really being worthless in the final analysis.
Rough language is part of the landscape in this story, so it didn't feel totally out of place. And I am interested enough in the story to continue to the next installment.