A review by rustedtulips
All These Things I've Done, by Gabrielle Zevin
2.0
I struggled to really get into the book, it starts out describing this dystopian world of 2082. Which seems so hard to understand how in the next 60 years we will be entirely running out of water and living off rations including rationing candles and making caffeine/ chocolate illegal ? Either way the whole dystopian world scene doesn't add much to the picture I think this story could have almost been set in modern days just from a different persception for the characters.
The story is told from the views of Anya, a teenage girl and middle child to New York's notorious crime family. Her dad used to run the whole operation and their now illegal chocolate business. Anya is responsible for both her older brother Leo and her younger sister Natty while their guardian is actually a dying grandmother kept alive only by machines. Since both her mother and father have died from their association as leaders of a crime family.
Anya falls in love with a boy at her Catholic school but since he's also the son of the new Assistant DA in town, it's a bit more complicated than a teenage romance.
Sounds pretty good right?
Wrong, I really had wanted to like this book, it seemed just like others I read and really enjoyed. The first several chapters seemed so slow and not much actually happened after the first few pages which do seem exciting ( everything described above is within the first chapter). Things picked up and I had hope it would stay that way but they quickly died back down to their slow pace where not really anything was happening or it seemed to just feel almost drawn out and boring.
The last two chapters got a little exciting again but this is the first of a trilagy and I won't be subjecting myself to the other two books so this one will forever be a cliff hanger. I honestly think if the other two are similar in pace to this one then the whole series could have been broken down and better placed all together as one cohesive, fast paced and more enjoyable book.
I did like the characters and I liked their story, minus the dystopian world and strange chocolate legality that comes with it. I have given it two stars because the basics of their stories, timelines and lives seem to be very good and I had just wished I enjoyed it more or enough to find out the rest of their stories as I do hate a cliff hanger.
The story is told from the views of Anya, a teenage girl and middle child to New York's notorious crime family. Her dad used to run the whole operation and their now illegal chocolate business. Anya is responsible for both her older brother Leo and her younger sister Natty while their guardian is actually a dying grandmother kept alive only by machines. Since both her mother and father have died from their association as leaders of a crime family.
Anya falls in love with a boy at her Catholic school but since he's also the son of the new Assistant DA in town, it's a bit more complicated than a teenage romance.
Sounds pretty good right?
Wrong, I really had wanted to like this book, it seemed just like others I read and really enjoyed. The first several chapters seemed so slow and not much actually happened after the first few pages which do seem exciting ( everything described above is within the first chapter). Things picked up and I had hope it would stay that way but they quickly died back down to their slow pace where not really anything was happening or it seemed to just feel almost drawn out and boring.
The last two chapters got a little exciting again but this is the first of a trilagy and I won't be subjecting myself to the other two books so this one will forever be a cliff hanger. I honestly think if the other two are similar in pace to this one then the whole series could have been broken down and better placed all together as one cohesive, fast paced and more enjoyable book.
I did like the characters and I liked their story, minus the dystopian world and strange chocolate legality that comes with it. I have given it two stars because the basics of their stories, timelines and lives seem to be very good and I had just wished I enjoyed it more or enough to find out the rest of their stories as I do hate a cliff hanger.