Book Review: 'Acid' by Emma Pass

It's been almost a month since I wrote my last book review, as I've never had such a busy school-life, with revision and other projects that I'm currently working on stealing all of the free hours I use to have. I also haven't been able to read as much as I would have wanted to - although, I did get to sneak in 'Acid' during a short school-break, after it had been on my wish-list for months and I spotted it at my local library.

They stole her life. Now she wants it back.

ACID - the most brutal police force in history.

 

They rule with an iron fist.

 

They see everything. They know everything.

 

They locked me away for life.

 

My crime?

 

They say I murdered my parents.

 I was fifteen years old.

 

My name is Jenna Strong.

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'Acid' was an exhilarating and enthralling debut, that was driven by our main protagonist Jenna Strong, who readers can't help but admire. Set in 2113, the IRB is now controlled by the brutal police force ACID, who rule by inflicting fear onto those who watch on - fed information through their coms. As a person who loves reading, the fact that there are only a limited number of e-Fics that have been approved by ACID was a part of the book that was hard-hitting for me. This aspect was something that struck me, and made me fear where the world could be going; something all good Dystopias need to do. Strong, at the age of seventeen, may be the only women prisoner in Mileway but her wit and determination have kept her alive thus far; not to mention her feisty demeanour, and her unflinching attitude that made this book all the more enjoyable. Pass' debut was set in a mainly dystopia London, one that reflects some of the problems we are currently facing such as political turmoil, and was built carefully, a clear symbolism of the hierarchy that we see everyday in our daily-lives, but tend to ignore as we are so used to it.

The way 'Acid' was written perfectly captured the voice of Jenna Strong, and all the emotions that she experienced throughout the novel - everything from the anger she felt at ACID to her guilt over her parents' murders, and the frustration at not being told certain things. Jenna is definitely one of my new favourite female heroines. Pass' writing caught my attention from the very first page, effortlessly pulling me into a gripping tale that was never short of suspense or excitement; but also able to throw in expert character-building, to the point where you felt like many of the characters, mainly Jenna and a young man named Max Fisher(on the run from ACID) were not just fictional characters; they were depicted so well that they felt real. Feeling as if you are connected to a character is such an important part of a book, but with Jenna and Max, I was left jaw-dropped as if what was happening in their lives was what was taking place in my own.

 

Emma Pass really has established herself as an author I know I will continue to read, no matter what genre she dips her pen into. Not only were there a set of relatable main characters, but we had a set of secondary-characters that never felt as if they had been thrown in to move along the plot - a quick 'shortcut' for a new writer on the block. Instead,  'Acid' was not an overly-crowded, struggling to remember names, type of novel. Pass took complete advantage of the society she had written about, creating government-ministers I saw as villains creeping through the book, ready to pounce on Jenna whenever they wished. Yes, there was quite a large cast of characters, but they were all described so well and I grew to care about them - willing them on.

 

The plot was extremely intricate, and when reading, it was tough to comprehend how much planning it must have taken-place to piece together. With careful hints, you realise later, dropped in throughout the novel, as well as twists and turns throughout the stand-a-lone, it was unexpected - and something any fan of Dystopia novels and those who can spend hours reading thrillers will devour in a few days. The pages were filled with original ideas - and there are various different ways used to tell the story such as using ACID's news reporters - sent straight to com.

 

One of my favourite things about this novel was how it was a stand-alone. Although, the only reason that this is not a five-star read is due to a few loose-ends - but I couldn't recommend it enough for a great UKYA read.

 



4.5 Stars



Have you read 'ACID'?

Tell me in the comments!



Author Interview with Liz Coley! FULL

I'm so excited to get to ask Liz Coley some questions, as I recently read, loved and wrote a review of her novel Pretty Girl Thirteen. As I had so many questions I wanted to ask Liz, there will also be a second part of this interview posted soon and am so excited!

Hello Liz, Welcome to A Day Dreamers World and thank you for allowing me to interview you. 

Pretty Girl Thirteen was your new book out earlier this year; for people who don't know could you give us a quick synopsis?

13-year old Angie vanishes without a trace on a Girl Scout camp out and finds herself walking home three years later with no idea where she has been, what has happened to her, or why she is so scarred. In fact, she doesn’t even know she has been missing. In her memory, it’s as if the trip were just yesterday and she’s still thirteen inside. There are secrets you can’t even tell yourself. 

How long did it take you to put pen to paper? 

After a summer of research, the first draft was written in about eight weeks, mostly in the month of November 2009 for National Novel Writing Month. Revisions with my agent took another eight months. As you can see from the calendar, it takes a really long time to bring a book to publication.

Why did you decide to write Pretty Girl Thirteen? 

I had long wanted to write a protagonist with Dissociative Identity Disorder, but I was waiting for the right story to come to me. Then, after reading some scientific articles about the seat of memory in our brains and different articles about new techniques being developed for controlling the firing of nerve cells in the brain, I had a fleeting thought about voluntary memory control. Finally, when the abbreviated title PG-13 appeared to me, almost like a vision, the whole idea clicked in my head and I knew what the core of the story was going to be—the individual stories of a girl’s alters threatened with extinction. It evolved from there.

Are there any ways that you can personally relate to Angie, or the other main characters? 

Fortunately, I’ve never experienced terrible trauma like hers, but I imagine that I would try to be very practical and unemotional about it and focus on survival. I’m more like Girl Scout than any of the others. 

How did you find writing Pretty Girl Thirteen? Did you find yourself sobbing as you wrote? 

For most of the scenes that are frightening, I think I was a bit dissociated myself as I wrote them. I protected my own heart. But the scenes that did make me well-up (and still do after eighty million readings) were the tender ones with Abraim, Little Wife’s letter, the luncheon, and the scene in the grass. No spoilers here! Since I wrote in such a concentrated burst, I was in a really tense, weird mood all that month. The strangest thing was waking up disoriented one night and feeling for just a moment that I was Angie.

Pretty Girl Thirteen deals with so many serious, and mature subjects. How were you able to get the right balance between being honest but it being suitable for Young Adults?

I’m extremely honest with my own teenagers, not prudish or sensitive, even blunt. So that part comes naturally. But I also think that it’s important to write in a subtle way about the mature content so that if readers are too young or innocent, it will go right over their heads, but leave enough implied between the lines that the experienced reader will understand what’s left off the page. My editor and agent were also very helpful in telling me where I could/should rein it back. There was one disturbing image we did edit out completely so it wouldn’t scar impressionable minds. It made me squeamish, too.

 

 

The way you slowly gave away details about Angie's life locked away definitely kept me gripped. How did you piece all of this together to come up with what actually happened to Angie? And do you know exactly what happened now? 

I envisioned the story as layers and layers of secrets unfolding at all the major impact points of a three-act story structure. The first one, that Angie has DID is, of course, given away in all the cover copy and reviews. I had all the other secrets planned out before I started writing (which is unusual for me), but I still needed to work on how to get from each to each. The last secret revealed is really obvious to some readers and hits others over the head with surprise. There are still some secrets at the end of the book, even from me! I have my theories about what Angel refused to say, and I tried to set everything up to support that theory. I figure the story stands up if you can reread it, knowing the answers, and still find it tense and compelling. 

In this book, Angie has to deal with a mental illness called Dissociative Identity Disorder - how did you come up with the different personalities of the 'alters'? Did you base any of their personalities on your friends? 

I daydreamed about the alters on a seven-hour car ride about eight months before I ever started writing. I knew the kinds of roles they needed to play in shielding her from trauma, in her ability to survive and finally escape.  They actually walked out of my imagination and introduced themselves to me, names and personalities, very clearly. I never had to “plan” them out. When I started writing all that time later, they were still just as vivid, as if they were real people I knew. None of them are based on real people, though I do know someone who recovered from Dissociative Identity Disorder.

I found the way that Angie's dad reacted to this so realistic. How were you able to get inside this character's mindset and make him feel guilty in many ways? 

I knew the parents would react differently. Angie inherited her mom’s practicality about getting on with getting better in many ways, although Mom is in more of a hurry to wipe away the unpleasantness. I  knew a father would be really weirded out by what he knew must have happened. He would either be furious and violent or depressed and helpless. I chose a self-absorbed father who suffers most from a feeling of failure. Some readers are really angry at his reaction, but It did feel realistic and totally human to me.  I know people who I think would have reacted that way.

What do you want your readers to take away from the experience of reading Pretty Girl Thirteen? 

After reading reviews and seeing what different people have taken away from the book, I have a theory that everyone who picks up this book reads a different story. The story I read is about memory and identity--that all the events that have gone into making you, both good and bad ones, are precious in their own way. Angie’s truncated diary, the organized toy boxes in the garage, and Mom’s scrapbooks are all ways of honoring past experience. When I sign at bookstores or book festivals, I like to inscribe people’s title pages with the phrase “Cherish your memories.” That’s one of the things Angie learns to do in order to heal.

Are you working on anything new at the moment? 

I’ve got a completed novel that is going out on submission and a proposal under consideration—nothing definite yet.

UPDATE: 15/07/13

There will be no part two, as they were only quick-fire questions and I've lost them as per usual! Sorry!

 

Thank you so much again to Liz Coley for doing this interview with me. If you haven't yet picked up a copy of Pretty Girl Thirteen, go and do it right now!

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Review: 'Pretty Girl Thirteen' by Liz Coley

We tried so hard to keep you safe...

 

When sixteen-year-old Angie Chapman walks in the front door of her house, everything looks the same.

 

The same, but not quite.

Why is her handsome father's black hair completely grey? Why does her mother collapse in tears? Then they tell her: she has been missing, presumed dead, for three years. But while Angie can't recall a single detail of where she has been or how long she's been gone, there are people who do remember. People who can tell her everything. If only they weren't locked inside her mind.

 

Is she ready to learn the truth about Pretty Girl Thirteen?

 

It's not often you pick up a book that you'll never forget. That takes your emotions and scatters them across the floor. Pretty Girl Thirteen is this type of book. It's concept is a tough read, but one you can't put down. Of course, it's a book for more mature Young Adult readers but it's a really important read. Also very unsuspecting, I thought it would be a fantasy novel where it turned out to be a thriller.

 

Pretty Girl Thirteen is a haunting, harrowing and gripping read that is also heart-breaking and powerful. When I wasn't reading this, I was thinking about it. Angela Chapman has been missing for three years, and she doesn't realise it. Nor until her parents tell her, when she arrives home one day from what she thinks was a short camping trip, and they explain she was presumed dead. The novel is about unravelling what happened in the three years she has been away. The problem is, the people who do remember are locked inside her mind. Then you are faced with the question of how horrifying the truth may be. After a few chapters, the discovery takes place that she has Dissociative Identity Disorder - a mental disorder where a person has more than one personality, that has protected Angie from the truth. Her 'personalities' kept her hidden while they lived the abuse for her. I found this concept so interesting, intriguing but also shocking. The way the story was told allowed what happened to Angie to slowly become undone, and as she learnt more, she also had her 'normal' day to day life to live.

 

This book definitely deals with topics that are all too real in our society. It's an important story to be told, but frightening and something that will haunt you. I mean, I found myself sobbing throughout this book and I applaud Liz Coley for not shying away from a subject like this. I mean, it was enthralling, un-putdownable and heart-breaking. It had it's fair share of twists and turns in it's plot, I've never had such a roller-coaster ride inside a book. There are three main events that stand-out, as well as getting to know the 'alters' that have tried to keep her safe from the truth. I loved how the author was able to created all these different personalities, and make sure they all had a role in Angie's life.

 

As for the character's, I soon found out there was a back-story to them all. One character I thought was really well realised was Angie's dad, who although I wanted to tell him to stand up and stop feeling sorry for himself, by the way I understood him at the end. I thought it was the perfect reaction, because he felt guilty for not being able to protect his daughter from what had happened. I also never thought things would happen, the way the 'alters' would reveal things that would cause anger to bubble inside of me. Angie, what can I say? She was an amazing, and inspiring female. She had to accept what had happened, missing three years of her life and being used. There are scars on her wrists and around her ankles, and the only thing that happens is that she discovers more. The way she dealt with it, was not feeling sorry for herself but wanting to recover. The ending made me love her even more.

 

Honestly, at times I couldn't quite believe what I was reading and how the family couldn't accept a certain point in the novel. One thing I would point out, although the ending was wise, I wanted more. I wanted there to be an Epilogue, or for there to be more information. I mean, there were two things I wanted to know. It made sense at times to not say, but then the part of me that needs to know every detail wanted it. But, just read this book! Although I have to say it's definitely for more mature audiences. Angie deals with years of physical abuse and this novel is upsetting. Completely worth the read nevertheless. As you can see by the length of my review, I can't justify how powerful, moving and quite frankly, frightening this book was.

 

For ages 14 +

4 Stars

 

Everyone needs to experience this, in all it's haunting ways.