"The Resistance" Review

Book 20 of 20 for the Dystopian Challenge

Of all the things that a book titled "The Resistance" could be -- anything from brave and bolstering to slippery, or tense, or risky -- the very last thing you want it to be is insipid.

I really liked its predecessor, The Declaration. I thought the setup and the characters were compelling, though the sudden shootout ending was a bit strange. It should have been a red flag.

The characters are largely the same, but the game has completely changed. Our favorite Surpluses, Peter and Anna, have escaped from captivity and are attempting to live a normal life in a society where no babies are born and everyone lives forever. Peter gets caught up in the inner workings of the society and starts to lose sight of what he stood for in the first book...

Maybe because I listened to the audiobook of the first (narrated by a woman with a lovely British accent) and read the second, but something crucial was missing from this sequel. The characters were too simple and too capricious. The enemies were artlessly superficial villains. They practically twisted their thin mustaches and cackled.

There was a big plot point, which I won't discuss in detail, which was supposed to be revealed in a shocking manner and carry the book to its startling conclusion, only...

Without saying exactly what it was, let me just say that its impact presupposes a certain moral viewpoint that, if absent in the reader, makes the entire ending a bit lackluster.

It occurs to me that I've been spoiled by The Hunger Games, which is certainly far more edgy. I'm not prepared to give up on Malley's world entirely, not yet, but I think her strengths were highlighted in the realm of Surpluses. My favorite part of "The Resistance" dealt with the experiences of another Surplus. It wasn't a large portion of the book, and it wasn't very well developed, though it was the best written part.

Oh, the writing. Was the first book this trite and clumsy? I don't remember that it was. The sequel certainly is. My inner voice screamed and revised throughout, changing sentences, cutting unnecessary bits, rephrasing the clunky dialog. It reads like a first draft that cries quietly in its crib for an attentive editor.

This was officially my last book for the Dystopian Challenge, but it isn't the last one I will read for it. I can't go out on this note.