The Doubt Factory - Paolo Bacigalupi

I'm torn. I like many parts of this novel, but there were others that I just couldn't get past, namely the romance. The political and social commentary were particularly poignant and relevant, but I felt that the full impact of those elements was overshadowed by the superficial love story between the protagonist and her kidnapper. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself... Let's start from the beginning!

 Synopsis: Everything Alix knows about her life is a lie. At least that's what a mysterious young man who's stalking her keeps saying. But then she begins investigating the disturbing claims he makes against her father. Could her dad really be at the helm of a firm that distorts the truth and covers up wrongdoing by hugely profitable corporations that have allowed innocent victims to die? Is it possible that her father is the bad guy, and that the undeniably alluring criminal who calls himself Moses--and his radical band of teen activists--is right? Alix has to make a choice, and time is running out, but can she truly risk everything and blow the whistle on the man who loves her and raised her?

Alix is an interesting character, and fairly well rounded as far as fictional individuals are concerned. Where the whole thing falls apart for me, however, is when Alix falls for her stalker, and then things become cliche for that portion of the novel. I liked so much about the political and social intrigue throughout the book, but every time Alix and Moses are together, the romantic interludes just fell flat. Another character, Cynthia, is also quite stereotypical as the over-achieving and mathematically inclined Asian-American who achieves perfect SAT scores. I realize some twists slightly alter the stereotypical nature of Cynthia's character, but overall I really question the use of such cliche throughout the novel.

I may have been able to look at the relationship between Alix and Moses as more of a Stockholm Syndrome type of situation if it wasn't for all the descriptions of hotness from both sides. I mean, really? You've got a creepy guy you don't know looking through your window at midnight and stalking you at school, and your first thought is to open the door and talk to the guy because there's just something about him that's super intriguing? I don't know...

I enjoyed the commentary on corporate greed and the use of real cases to support the fictional twists and turns that Bacigalupi uses to increase suspense in the overall story arc, but there were just too many flaws for me to get fully behind this text. While I'm not as vehemently against this book as some online, I'm also not able to look past the character flaws to give the text as much praise as Publishers Weekly with their starred review. I suppose I'm stuck in the middle.

(Note: This review is from an Advance Reading Copy - Out October 14, 2014)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Living - Matt De La Peña

Image
The Living  recently received an Honor from the Pura Belpré committee. The award recognizes of a work which best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth. As I was at the awards announcements, and having known people who served on the committee in the past, I was intrigued. I had read the winning title and the other honor titles, and was impressed with the choices. So here's my review of The Living : The novel begins with Shy, a young guy working for a snazzy cruise line, offering water to people on the Lido Deck of the ship to combat the heat. Everything is going pretty well until an older gentleman comes out and starts spouting of weird, disconcerting phrases: "You have seen the face of evil."Shy doesn't quite know what to think, so he moves on to a couple of ladies on the other side of the deck. Just as he's handing them their water bottles, he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and realizes the old guy h...
Read more

The Music of What Happens - Bill Konigsberg

Image
Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever. Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart. Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most. This is a phenomenal book, in my humble opinion. There aren't too many books dealing with male sexual abuse, particularly in YA. Sex and sexuality are messy parts of young adulthood, but what this book does really well is discuss consent and the ways in which physical cues can be misinte...
Read more

Girls Like Us - Gail Giles

Image
I have now gone out and made sure that I have all of the books longlisted for the National Book Award. I read and reviewed a number of these previously, so now I have five left to read and review. This is one of those five (but would I expect anything less from the fabulous team at Candlewick?) Girls Like Us  is a unique novel in a number of respects, most notably in the fact that both protagonists are identified (and self-identified) as mentally disabled in some way. Biddy has a learning disability that she was born with, while Quincy is a young girl who is disabled due to the fact that her mother's boyfriend hit her in the head with a brick, disfiguring her and damaging her brain. Once the two girls graduate from school, they move into a house together, becoming caregivers for both each other and an older woman, Elizabeth. The two must rely on each other for comfort, knowledge, and emotional strength, and Elizabeth manages to help them along the way. While I had moments of wo...
Read more