The Young World (Young World, #1)

by Chris Weitz

Welcome to New York, a city ruled by teens.

After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he's secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.

The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park . . . and discovers truths they could never have imagined.

• ISBN10: 0349001936
• ISBN13: 9780349001937
• Publish Date: 29 July 2014 (first published 1 January 1960)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: ATOM
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

While wiping adults from the face of the earth and having teens be on their own isn't a new concept, I did like The Young World. Just two years ago, the Sickness swept through, killing all of the adults and young kids. Teens only survived because of their raging hormones. Now, at least in New York City, teens have created their own societies and are fighting to stay alive. Then Jefferson and his crew leave their corner of the world to try and find the cure, or die trying. Or just die in a a few years when the Sickness takes them, too.

The world of The Young World is a dark one. It's scary to imagine hordes of teenagers with guns, swords, and bombs defending their territory and meager resources. But that's exactly what's going on. There may be significantly less mouths to feed, but food is still hard to come by when no one is producing anything. Of course, money is also useless, so scavenging and bartering are the ways to go. There are some places where the teens have managed to get electricity going and started farms, but it's still not much. Plus, why bother when you're going to be dead soon?

I did spend a lot of time wondering what's happening elsewhere in the world. We are told that the Sickness started in New York, then worked it's way West. From what I understand, it all happened pretty quickly after that first person showed up at the hospital, quickly infecting everyone around them. But what about outside of North America? It's not hard to imagine that someone infected, or even a teenage carrier, got onto a plane and spread the disease. It's not like either of our two narrators would know that though, since there is no more television or internet. But if that wasn't the case, wouldn't someone in another country have known what was happening, and maybe tried to make contact? I don't know. I just wanted to know more, but the limited perspective didn't allow for that.

The Young World is a diverse read! One of our narrators, Jefferson, is half Japanese. He carries around an ancestral samurai sword and talks about Buddhism (although I don't think he practices, but his father did). Peter is also part of Jeff's group to find the cure, and he's black and gay. Then there's SeeThrough, who the group picks up on their way out, who recently emigrated from China. We also learn about some race wars happening in parts of the city. Even though most of the population is gone, discrimination is very much still a part of life.

The Young World is basically a Dystopian road trip novel. It's fast paced and dangerous. There's a lot of sick stuff happening in the few blocks that Jefferson, Donna, Peter, Brainbox, and SeeThrough travel. In some ways these kids are mature beyond their years, but in others they're just scared and scrambling along in the dark without growns up to help them. Then that ending....WTF? Where did they come from? How is it possible? Is it even what they really think it is? I don't know! I guess I'll have to continue and find out.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

DNF: No particular reason. The dystopian/post-apocalyptic genres are pretty crowded in YA right now, so originality is hard. There wasn't much original in the beginning of this; the idea that a disease had killed off all the adults isn't new, but it also still isn't very believable. I wasn't particularly invested in the characters either...so eventually I just let this one go.

[leahrosereads]

Any time a novel puts me into a reading slump, I know that the review and my liking of the book are going to go down, dramatically.

I was so close to DNFing THE YOUNG WORLD. It started off interesting. I liked the idea of a world where adults don’t exist, and in this post-apocalyptic world, where kids (under the age of 18) have to fend for themselves, well, it’s an interesting concept to me.

Unfortunately, Chris Weitz could not keep the idea from becoming boring, and I pretty much will blame it on his characters, and then, him making some poor decisions.

So the characters:

Our MC: Jefferson, the geek, the sidekick to his old brother Washington, who has to step up into the leadership role after Washington dies. He doesn’t want it, but he feels obligated. And he’s boring as hell, but I liked his morals (first ⅔ anyway), that I didn’t completely hate the character.

Our second MC, though, I disliked: Donna. She’s our snowflake. You know the girl MC - she’s plain, boring, there’s nothing special about her at all. She likes Star Wars and hates Barbie. She’s just different. In this post-apocalypse where everyone is giving it up because they’re not going to live past 18 anyway, she’s holding onto her virginity, but still having fun in other ways. She slut shames. She teases, but you know, it’s OK because she’s just really different. I absolutely loathed this character.

Peter - The black gay best friend of Donna’s. I liked his snark, but there wasn’t enough Peter to save this novel.

Brainbox - also a geek. Friend of Jefferson’s. Thinks he can find the cure. Saw the ending from a mile away with this character. Everything about him made the ending (which seemed like should Weitz wanted to shock the reader, completely predictable.)

SeeThrough - our little ninja BAMF. She tries so hard to overcompensate for her size and age, and for people to believe she’s really as hard as she seems. She’s not, but she’s still awesome. I liked her.

Kath - Because every YA seems to need a love triangle. Toss away character, and I figured she was.


Onto the poor decisions:

--#1 putting in an unnecessary love triangle. Instead of using those pages for much needed information, Weitz decided to force a love triangle that felt completely forced.

--#2 Relationship between Jefferson and Donna - felt forced through and through.

--#3 Certain conflicts that the characters went through were a little too drawn out, and again, for a first novel in a trilogy, these conflicts took pages away from world building (world building that I believe should have been put in the novel).

--#4 Characters changing personalities on a whim. Our geek hero turns manwhore in 30 seconds. Seemed legit.

--#5 Racing to the finish line. The book ends on a conflict that should have been more drawn out, written properly, and more fully developed. Weitz truly failed to give the reader adequate knowledge on what was going on.

--#6 The world building (what little there is) was poorly executed.

--#7 Giving the reader a reason to care. I didn’t give a fuck about what happened to the characters. This is always an issue when it comes to a series. I should want the characters to be OK, to succeed, to live and love and complete their goal/mission/whatever. If I don’t, yeah, just not a good thing.

Just a random dislike:

--#8(?): Chris, you made Edward Cullen a deity to one of the Mole People? Seriously? That’s just weird.


Sorry this is such a ranty review. So onto the pluses for THE YOUNG WORLD:

--#1 The action really keeps the pace of the novel moving. There’s not any real slow parts of it, and had I been more interested in the book, it wouldn’t have dragged for me the way it did.

--#2 I liked that the characters weren’t all just a bunch of white rich kids. There was race/culture/class diversity with the kids, and I liked it.

--#3 Secondary characters were really fun to meet (for the most part).

--#4 Concept of the story (world without adults) is still a huge plus for me, and something that I enjoyed about the story.


Overall, I’m not going to continue the series, and I honestly wouldn’t recommend THE YOUNG WORLD.

[Kelly]

4½ Stars.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/08/the-young-world-by-chris-weitz.html
The Young World was brilliant, a post apocalyptic fight for survival in which teens now rule New York. There are no adults or children, the teens believing that the Sickness lay dormant within their age group, then ensuring a quick death once a teen reaches physical maturity. None more so than Brainbox, the resident teen scientist who has his own theories about the deadly virus, but needs help to obtain proof. Their journey is incredibly dangerous, especially with the large community of Uptowners calling for blood after a failed trade attempt. During the journey, the group also come into contact with the Moles, kids who live underground, the racial divide between the African American teens and Hispanic, who are either vying for control or to simply survive.

Told in dual points of view, Jefferson is quiet, stoic and believes that those who remain can build a new society. He hopes for a future where the Sickness can be cured, and will either find a cure or die trying. Donna on the other hand is feisty, realistic and won't allow herself for anything more than seeing out each day. Friends since both were young, Jefferson secretly pines for Donna but can't bring himself to tell her. Their points of view are both incredibly diverse, and I loved seeing the same situation portrayed though both characters.

By far my favourite character was Peter, Donna's best friend and confidant. He's the token gay character, Christian, African American and incredibly snarky. His mild sexual innuendos and throw away one liners add a lightness to the storyline in an otherwise grim world.

Overall, it's an awesome read, incredibly entertaining and had trouble putting this one down. Already I'm eagerly awaiting book two in the series. A brilliant debut author, Chris Weitz is definitely one to watch out for.