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A review by tobyyy
Out of Control by Sarah Alderson
4.0
I read this book while it was on PulseIt (today was the last day and since I started it yesterday, I really had to zoom through it!). I really enjoyed it; it really was an edge-of-the-seat sort of ride.
I liked Liva, but for a protagonist, she was somewhat mysterious, even though the book was told in first-person. I think part of that is due to the fact that she had such a different life from 98% of the world's population, and definitely different from mine. Growing up overseas, having a bodyguard at all times, etc.
I also really think this book has a lot to offer the world of YA fiction. It deals with two fairly tough topics -- although IMO they're tough in different ways. Throughout the book, Liva realizes how much she forces herself not to feel anything -- and throughout the book, Jay shows her that feeling something is better than feeling nothing. Even if that something is not a pleasant feeling. Because when you learn to numb yourself to feelings, sure, you deprive yourself of the negative ones (like guilt, grief, anger) -- but you also deprive yourself of the wonderful ones (happiness, joy, excitement). That's the first tough topic; the reason I call it "tough" is because once you get used to numbing your feelings -- in whatever way, whether it involves drugs, alcohol, self-injury, or just shutting them out and refusing to think about them -- it's so hard to reverse that and learn to feel again. And so many teens/young adults that I know do numb their feelings because it's painful to be sad, to be depressed, to be grieving.
The other tough topic was that of human trafficking. Gotta admit, I totally did not see where this book was going with that. In grad school, whenever we had to write papers on injustice in today's society, I wrote mine on human trafficking. Even where I live (a rural county in Northeast PA), it's an issue. It's an operation that, world-wide, earns billions of dollars a year. And I am so glad that it was tackled in a YA book, in a manner that was not too brutal (IMO) yet gave valuable information about human trafficking.
Definitely a good read. Thought-provoking, too. Well done, Ms. Alderson!
I liked Liva, but for a protagonist, she was somewhat mysterious, even though the book was told in first-person. I think part of that is due to the fact that she had such a different life from 98% of the world's population, and definitely different from mine. Growing up overseas, having a bodyguard at all times, etc.
I also really think this book has a lot to offer the world of YA fiction. It deals with two fairly tough topics -- although IMO they're tough in different ways. Throughout the book, Liva realizes how much she forces herself not to feel anything -- and throughout the book, Jay shows her that feeling something is better than feeling nothing. Even if that something is not a pleasant feeling. Because when you learn to numb yourself to feelings, sure, you deprive yourself of the negative ones (like guilt, grief, anger) -- but you also deprive yourself of the wonderful ones (happiness, joy, excitement). That's the first tough topic; the reason I call it "tough" is because once you get used to numbing your feelings -- in whatever way, whether it involves drugs, alcohol, self-injury, or just shutting them out and refusing to think about them -- it's so hard to reverse that and learn to feel again. And so many teens/young adults that I know do numb their feelings because it's painful to be sad, to be depressed, to be grieving.
The other tough topic was that of human trafficking. Gotta admit, I totally did not see where this book was going with that.
Spoiler
The fact that Liva's father was in charge of a human trafficking ring -- and to the end, continued to justify it -- was horrific to me.Spoiler
I think that many teens/young adults think that they are "immune" to being victims of things such as that -- and so the the fact that Liva was a target for a trafficking operation (well, to be used as a bargaining chip, but I have no doubt that she would endure horrific things during that time) was really quite clever on the part of Alderson, since it kind of takes away that sense of immunity to being a victim from the reader, especially if they can find anything at all to identify with in Liva.Definitely a good read. Thought-provoking, too. Well done, Ms. Alderson!