Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Misty (Book Rat)

Okay.  Let's begin with the fact that I got a digital copy of this
early, which -- no, no, no, let's go back farther.  Let's begin with the
fact that I met MVS back in November (and I never posted pictures or
notes of the rollicking good time that was had by all), and at dinner,
she told us about the book she was working on that was due to come out
in, oh, 1/2 a year (the tease).  It was a YA dystopian novel
she says, and then I drifted out a bit, because could she have said
anything more up my alley?  Maria V. Snyder, she of the series' and the
characters that make my book club get really loud and inappropriate and,
dare I say, fangirlish, was writing a YA. DYSTOPIAN. NOVEL.  She
somehow read my dreams.

But I didn't want to get my hopes up. 
Too 'up', anyway, because that's not fair, and there were all kinds of
what ifs.  YA dystopia is not her norm -- what if she can't write YA? 
What if she can't write dystopia?  What if I *gulp* hate it.

What
if I drive myself crazy with worry slash ineeditnow, when I know damn
well that it's going to have her talent and character-driven goodness
behind it.  Back to the "getting the digital copy" bit, I found it on
NetGalley and snagged it for review, and what was I worried about?


All
of the things I loved about Snyder's adult books are her in Inside
Out.  I care about the characters, I see a budding romance, but on a YA
level, the writing is super fast paced and catching, and it flows
wonderfully.  Trella is definitely rootforable, and ya love her even
when you want to shake her.  There was great tension and
edge-of-your-seatness, and the world is fully realized and intriguing,
just as her worlds always are.  All of this I've come to expect from
Snyder.  AND there are 2 more good things, which I wasn't expecting. 1 -
the beginning had me right from the start.  Now, this isn't to say that
her beginnings don't generally grab me, because that would be a lie,
but they sometimes feel like beginnings to me -- they feel clunkyish or
awkward.  This was a "plunge right in, sink or swim" beginning, and it
worked beautifully.  #2 - she shocked me.  ME.  I'm never surprised by
anything that happens in a book.  I always see it coming, at least in
part, and it's generally a question of how well it's done.  But even
though I perhaps should have known -- clues were dropped, I'm not an
idiot -- she shocked me.  I didn't think it could be done.  Hats off,
Maria.

So I think that's all I can say.  I don't want to give
anything away, I just want you teased enough that you'll go out and grab
this, because trust me, it is well worth it.  And then you can sit and
wait anxiously with me for the sequel, Outside In.
[laughs
diabolically]

Originally posted: http://bookrat-misty.blogspot.com/2010/04/inside-out-by-maria-v-snyder.html