I was rooting for this book but honestly the first look was just so disappointing.
The Trials are a weird, sci-fi-ish thing thrown into what is otherwise a work of realistic fiction. You don't need to invent this thing to show that the juvenile "justice" system is deeply cruel. You could just show the reality. It'd feel much less like we were getting beat over the head with a poorly executed metaphor.
The protagonist is shockingly unsympathetic--she only expresses remorse that her actions had consequences, rather than that she killed her sister. The sister gets no characterization that makes you feel her loss at all. You only even find out in chapter 5 that the sister was SEVEN YEARS OLD!
The protagonist's brother, who is the other POV character, comes across slightly better, in that we can at least write off his whole "everyone around my sister is more at fault for her actions than she is" thing as him coping poorly with what has happened.
My only motivation for wanting to finish this is that I still have some shred of hope that the protagonist will grow and change and that this first impression of her is intentionally unsympathetic. I am trying to build my list of YA book recommendations about youth offenders (I do agree with the author that the word "offenders" is not a good one). From word of mouth, I was hoping this could go on that list. Based on the first look, it seems like it will not. Maybe the rest of the book will change my mind.
The Trials are a weird, sci-fi-ish thing thrown into what is otherwise a work of realistic fiction. You don't need to invent this thing to show that the juvenile "justice" system is deeply cruel. You could just show the reality. It'd feel much less like we were getting beat over the head with a poorly executed metaphor.
The protagonist is shockingly unsympathetic--she only expresses remorse that her actions had consequences, rather than that she killed her sister. The sister gets no characterization that makes you feel her loss at all. You only even find out in chapter 5 that the sister was SEVEN YEARS OLD!
The protagonist's brother, who is the other POV character, comes across slightly better, in that we can at least write off his whole "everyone around my sister is more at fault for her actions than she is" thing as him coping poorly with what has happened.
My only motivation for wanting to finish this is that I still have some shred of hope that the protagonist will grow and change and that this first impression of her is intentionally unsympathetic. I am trying to build my list of YA book recommendations about youth offenders (I do agree with the author that the word "offenders" is not a good one). From word of mouth, I was hoping this could go on that list. Based on the first look, it seems like it will not. Maybe the rest of the book will change my mind.