Maggot Moon

Maggot Moon
by Sally Gardner
Published February 12, 2013 by Candlewick

Summary:
(from goodreads.com)

What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall? On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell — who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright — sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.

Review:

Maggot Moon is really written beautifully; sentences flow off of each other with ease and add to the continuous flow of the story. However, I felt like this book was very confusing! The summary states that it is set in a Regime, and using context clues, one concludes that it is a Russian one due to the use of the word "Motherland" in reference to the country. I've read in other reviews that it is a "what-if" novel, concluding what the world would be like if Germany had won WWII. Either way, the book is eerie: a post-apocolyptic-esque setting with a Big Brother type governement ruling with an iron fist. While I enjoy books that thrust you right into the story with little explanation, this book didn't make much sense to me until about the last 30 chapters. The ending was not what I was expecting, but to be honest, none of the book is really what I expected it to be. I think one of the best things this book has is small chapters. It would be great for a reluctant reader to feel accomplished and keep reading on.

2.5/5

The Future of Us

The Future of Us
Jay Acker; Carolyn Macker
Razorbill 2011

Summary:
The year is 1996 and friends Josh and Emma log on to the internet via an AOL CD and are shocked when their Facebook pages come up. The thing is, Facebook doesn't exist yet and their facebook pages are 15 years into the future. By refreshing their pages, they find that the decisions they make in the present can affect their life outcomes in the future. As the two deal with the cards their future has dealt them, they try to figure out what went wrong--and what needs to be done right-- in the present.

Review
This book was recommended to me by two teen volunteers that come into the library. I was not displeased. It was a bit of nostalgia for me, first off, because the book takes place in 1996 and both of the main characters are teenagers. In 1996, I was only 9 years old, but a lot of the things in the book made me remember a lot of things from my childhood, like Discmans. One would also think, that as a teen book set in 1996, it may be lost on today's teen audience, since most of them were only babies during that time. Here's where the Facebook portion of the book pulls in the "new age" readers by giving them something to relate to and have them understand why the two main characters are so confused about the future.

I also liked the theme of "What you do now follows you for life". This is especially true since both Emma and Josh are seniors who are about to go to college, and I remember everyone and their mom telling me in high school to make good decisions as the ones you make when you're young can affect you when you're an adult. Emma is unhappy with her life and is constantly trying to alter it so Future!Emma will be happy while Josh, presumably happy with his outcome, begins persuing his future wife even though she's "out of his league".

The pacing and the voices of the book makes the characters real and makes the book an easy read. I loved the ending and how all the peices seemed to fall into place for the main characters.

Teens that enjoy the movies Back to the Future will love this book as that is what I was constantly reminded of during reading. I would also recommend this to reluctant readers as the plot isn't too deep and not overcomplicated with excessive details.

4/5