Review: Retelling of a Bit of History
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2012
This book centers around 19 year old Dylan and the life he's had to endure the past two years and presently. The eldest of two children, his family was put behind the wall the seperates those who are free and those who are in the Zones. After a virus swept through the Zones, Dylan is not only the big brother but protector of his young sister Lil. The wall in this story reminds me a lot of the Berlin Wall. In fact Dylan, who is an artist, depicts the warden of the zones as Hitler in one of his pictures. The story follows Dylan over a short period of time, but gives a detailed look at his life and those around him. The monotonous factory work, the constant fear of what can happen in the dark, the thugs who rule the night and are doing what they can to make everyone's life even worse. Dylan finds himself done with this all and takes a stand.The story never seemed to have lull. Even if the characters themselves weren't doing too much, I was never bored. I didn't understand why Dylan, who is protective of his sister and extremely watchful of her, would go out in the middle of the night to paint part of the wall with pictures. If he had been caught by the guards or warden, he probably would never have made it back. If the Hoods had caught him, he would have been beat up if not close to death, than to death.As I had said, the wall was a reminder of the Berlin Wall and represented many things over the years. The biggest was The Iron Curtain, which seperated Western Europe from the communist rule of the Soviet Union. Families were seperated from each other, those who tried to breach the wall were shot, guards were a fierce presence. Not only was there similarities there, but also with the bar code tattooed on the factory workers. I found this as a comparison to the tattoos of those in concentration camps.What I didn't get from the story was why the wall was built in the first place, nor why or how the people who lived behind the wall were put there are chosen to be there. I had hoped there would have been answer to that, but was disappointed when I was left without answers. What I did get, was how a population cut off from society with no true government in place, could slowly implode but never give up hope for better.This book was provided to me, by the author, for review. I enjoyed this book and hope that there is a sequel. It would be great to see what happens with Dylan, the Zones and get some backstory.