Began reading: 22.3.2016
Completed reading: 25.3.2016
Overall rating: 3 stars
Much of the world is burning or flooded. The temperate zones are still habitable - and one small island is teeming with climate refugees. Life in the Badlands is dangerous, disease-ridden, violent and controlled by gangsters and terrorists.
But Valentina lives high in the privileged Citadel, at the heart of the heavily protected Green Zone. She is the president's daughter, sheltered, spoilt and arrogant. When she makes a secret trip to the Badlands, however, with her friends Pippa and Damian, she is forced to face up to the realities of life on the island and to the responsibilities her position brings with it.
Valentina by Kevin McDermott is a young adult fiction novel that incorporates dystopian themes with adventure and humour. I have been eyeing this book on Book Depository for so long, and I recently gave in and purchased it. I was drawn in by the description, as I love dystopian novels. Unfortunately, the novel didn’t live up to my expectations, and I’ll explain why shortly.
I’m not sure why, but I was hoping that this book would be almost flawlessly written. A big issue was that there were a LOT of spelling and grammatical errors. What was worse was that these errors were mistakes that a primary school student would be guilty of! There were words that weren’t separated by spaces, and missing quotation marks during characters’ dialogue. On the other hand, there were some really good quotes that I had to add here, including:
I’m happier in the dream world. Weird, isn’t it — dreaming? It’s you in your dreams and you know it’s you, but then everything else is not quite right, like living in a house that’s tilted on it’s side so when you walk you feel giddy and light-headed. And the world is so bright, so vivid. In dreams, there’s more of everything: more fear, more happiness, more monkeys, more dead people, more rainbows, more lakes, more fish — just more. And I’m more me in my dreams, more myself, more true to myself, more who I want to be (p. 6).
‘Dogs see who you really are,’ Pippa said. ‘And once they attach to you, they stay loyal even if you are cruel or ignore them or want to send them away, because they know you are always more than the sum of your worst actions’ (pp. 21-22).
When we were safe in our room, I said to Pippa, ‘What was all that about?’
‘You are loved, Val.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’
‘People respect your father but they fear him. They need to believe in someone whom they can love and admire — and you’re the one.’
‘But they don’t know me or anything about me.’
‘They don’t have to. They’re in love with the idea of you. Your father is the stern king and you’re the gentle princess. You’re their fairytale, Val’ (p. 129).
Lying beside him was the most natural thing in the world, as normal as breathing, and our breathing fell into a shared rhythm (p. 144).
Humour made an appearance numerous times in the book, in the forms of sarcasm, sass, and typical teenage thoughts. I loved how sassy Valentina’s character was, and how she projected this sass outward to other characters. It kept me entertained, which I appreciated. I think that McDermott got the teenage attitude and humour spot-on, which deserves praise.
That is where the positives end. There were plot twists scattered throughout the plot, which kept me interested. Some were helpful and added depth to situations; however some were just so confusing. *WARNING: SPOILER* For example, Valentina’s dad and a few other characters knew her plan to visit the Badlands. Doesn’t that make the entire plot redundant? She planned to sneak away, but they knew anyway.
It was stated in the book that Valentina’s character was 14; however, I found that her ‘voice’ seemed more mature than her age. I believe that her dialogue better suited a character who was roughly 20. This made her character less relatable and unrealistic. From personal experience, I know that most 14-year-olds do not speak the way that Valentina does. Therefore, I found Valentina’s character to be lacking in accuracy.
The book was fast-paced, which could be seen as either a positive or negative thing. In this case, I found it to be a negative, as I was left confused more than once. While I reading, I would be thinking, ‘Ok, so this is happening… I wonder if this or this were to happen’, only to find that another complication would overlap the one that I was currently reading (does that make sense?). This constant stopping-and-starting of complications affected the novel’s structure. I had no idea when the resolution would occur, as all of these problems were beginning to ‘snowball’. If I may be a little dramatic here, I sometimes felt like I was drowning in problem after problem.
I was so frustrated about many things in this book, including Valentina’s insistence on dubbing Damien ‘the devil child’ or ‘you know who’. Seriously? What’s worse is that she never called Damien these names — she only associated him with these nicknames in her head. Why? If she was afraid that thinking his name might let her feelings for him show, then it was ridiculous. [Sarcasm] Yeah, because mentally calling a guy by his name will alert him of your true feelings.
Speaking of true feelings, the romance aspect of this book was horrible! In the beginning, Pippa had the ‘hots’ for Damien, yet nothing came from that. Valentina (almost too quickly) developed feelings for him too, which went nowhere and I’m not sure why. It seemed pretty obvious that these two would get together, and it never occurred. It just irritated me that it was suggested then led nowhere. I guess you could say that I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who likes or is hoping for a bit of forbidden romance.
*WARNING: SPOILER* The plot was incredibly anti-climactic. I mean, the whole point of the story was that Valentina would be reunited with Mattie in the Badlands (which didn’t happen), or that she would become the heroine (which, also, didn’t happen). I expected a happy ending, where there would be some kind of progress to improve the lives of those in the Badlands and Amber Zone, but no.
My favourite character was Valentina. The blurb portrayed her as this snobby, arrogant, spoilt girl; however, she wasn’t really anything like this. Yes, she flaunted her authority here and there, but she was compassionate and mature (most of the time). She had her flaws, as she was selfish and childish (crying almost ALL THE TIME).
But I suppose it added depth to her character.
I was hoping that Damian, Pippa and the other secondary characters would make a bigger appearance. Unfortunately, Damian disappeared half-way through, while Valentina’s parents and brothers were hardly included in the plot. Pippa was with Valentina through the whole story; however, she didn’t make much of an appearance, either. Because of this, I concluded that the secondary characters were pretty much pointless. The blurb hinted that Valentina, Pippa and Damian would go on this adventure to the forbidden Badlands, yet Damian disappeared before they got there. The secondary characters were just pointless and unnecessary, which was a let-down for me.
I had a couple of favourite parts in the book, including Valentina’s time at school, state dinners and Sandybrook House, as well as the final chapter. I enjoyed reading about the school and state dinners, as they provided an insight into the life of a president’s daughter. Also, we were able to see these events through Valentina’s eyes, which was interesting. I liked Sandybrook House and the residents within, as it was fascinating to see how the women lived — they were mad, and were sometimes confused about what era they were in. I liked the final chapter because it acted like an epilogue — it provided closure, as Valentina explained what happened when she and Pippa returned from the Badlands.
Recommendation time! If you like the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard, Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr, and Alice in Love and War by Ann Turnbull, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Elysium, The Hunger Games, 2012, The Purge, Never Let Me Go, Left Behind and The Colony.
Happy reading!
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