A review by teacher2library
The Body Market by Donna Freitas
1.0
I picked up this sequel hoping it would make good on the promise of the plot more than the first had. Boy, was I disappointed.
Imagine a world where techonology has so entranced people that they decide to plug permanently into the virtual and leave their physical bodies behind... sounds intriguing, right? The idea is just about the only good thing this series has going for it.
The bad? Almost everything else.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
In addition to resorting to tired YA cliches like the love triangle, Freitas decides to give Skylar a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome. So much of the novel is devoted to the story of Skylar falling in love with Kit, her KIDNAPPER, and the subsequent love triangle with Rain, that everything else takes a backseat... the other relationships, character development, the freaking plot itself.
"... I knew that I couldn't leave him like this. I had to help him. It was the right thing to do. But in my heart I knew I would help him because I wanted to, not simply because it was right."
...right, because the right thing to do in a hostage situation is take care of your kidnapper.
"'I am going to trust you, Kit,' I said. Kit had kidnapped me, but he still had never betrayed me. He never masqueraded something he wasn't, however unpleasant it had been it first."
...because kidnapping someone apparently isn't a betrayal of human rights.
"As I continued toward him, a million different impulses fired through me... Do something, anything, to restore the life to those eyes that I once thought were vacant, yet now knew where the opposite, or could be when something brought the real Kit to the surface from the deep place where he kept himself hidden."
...I can't even.
Imagine a world where techonology has so entranced people that they decide to plug permanently into the virtual and leave their physical bodies behind... sounds intriguing, right? The idea is just about the only good thing this series has going for it.
The bad? Almost everything else.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
In addition to resorting to tired YA cliches like the love triangle, Freitas decides to give Skylar a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome. So much of the novel is devoted to the story of Skylar falling in love with Kit, her KIDNAPPER, and the subsequent love triangle with Rain, that everything else takes a backseat... the other relationships, character development, the freaking plot itself.
"... I knew that I couldn't leave him like this. I had to help him. It was the right thing to do. But in my heart I knew I would help him because I wanted to, not simply because it was right."
...right, because the right thing to do in a hostage situation is take care of your kidnapper.
"'I am going to trust you, Kit,' I said. Kit had kidnapped me, but he still had never betrayed me. He never masqueraded something he wasn't, however unpleasant it had been it first."
...because kidnapping someone apparently isn't a betrayal of human rights.
"As I continued toward him, a million different impulses fired through me... Do something, anything, to restore the life to those eyes that I once thought were vacant, yet now knew where the opposite, or could be when something brought the real Kit to the surface from the deep place where he kept himself hidden."
...I can't even.