Possession

Ok, yet another Dystopian book! I really need to check out the genres before I read a recommended book or a book for book club! This book is written by Elana Johnson and I have to say that I enjoyed it but still had a hard time with it. When I read the first chapter I got really mad because it is another Uglies/Hunger Games/Maze Runner book-people controlling other people. However, that being said, I always try to give a book 100 pages unless the language is too bad. So I gave it 100 pages and I was hooked! It's very suspenseful and has action and is a thinking book. I don't know if this is what the author had intended but for me it made me think about what the world would have been like if Satan's plan had been accepted instead of the Lord's plan. So basically we would have to do everything that Satan said so that we couldn't make any wrong choices instead of having our free agency to make our own choices. I totally fell in love with all of the characters and I especially liked the main character, Vi. I had a little bit of a hard time with the swearing in it because again-it's teenagers saying those words. That's like nails on a chalkboard for me. Even though I say them I'm an adult. I probably disliked it because I'm a mom.

Anyway, one thing I absolutely loved....NO VIOLENCE!!!! Finally, a Dystopian book that doesn't involve everybody trying to kill each other as a solution to the world's problems! What I didn't like...the ending. But let me explain. I was told that this was the only book and that it wasn't a series. So when I got to the ending I thought LAME!!!!! Once again we have a book that totally has this climactic build to a really stupid ending. HOWEVER, upon further research I found out that the author had announced on her blog a THIRD book which means that there is a SECOND book which then changed my opinion of the ending from LAME to GOTTA FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!! Once I got hooked I couldn't put the book down. It's a total page turner and very well written. It's kind of futuristic because it has a lot of technology in it. But you basically have the "Goodies" and the "Baddies." The Goodies follow all the rules. They have to wear long sleeve shirts to their wrists and pants and large hats so that the sun never touches their skin. They aren't allowed to walk with the opposite sex, talk to them or touch them until the age of sixteen. Even parents aren't allowed to touch their children in anyway-not even hold their hand. They have to listen to things called "Transmissions" which essentially is brainwashing. If you are caught walking with a boy then your transmission would be about how evil and bad and dangerous that is and the things you have to do to be good. You can get arrested for doing things like that. The Baddies live in a total different area-banished basically-and they are the people who choose what they wear and live "freely". They don't have the level of technology that the Goodies do. One example of the Goodies thinking vs. the Baddies thinking is mail. Vi (raised as a Goodie) is just appalled when her friend Jag(raised as a Baddie) tells her that mail is like the Goodies e-comms only written on paper. Vi in her mind thinks that this is bad because of all the trees that are cut down and the damage that does. E-comms are basically texts.

So, like I said it gets you thinking. The story is about Vi who thinks that some of the rules are just stupid and is labeled as a rule breaker. After 8 offenses (the last one being that she was walking in a park, after dark, with a boy while holding hands) she is sent to prison where she meets Jag who is Baddie who was caught bringing illegal tech into the Goodlands. The story is about their adventure that these two completely different lives brings. It has so many twists and turns and like I said the ending is lame-until you realize there is more to the story and you want to run right out and get the second book! I think you will enjoy it. If you like books like "The Uglies" and "Hunger Games" you will like this...except there's no violence-yay for me! Boo for you others who enjoy that sort of thing! ;)