✨ You can read this book for free on RivetedLit this month (May 2020)!This is a critically important addition to YA and speculative fiction, and more people should be talking about this book! Want tackles social and political issues: wealth disparity, access to healthcare, climate change and environmental issues, all with a found family of misfits set on changing the world for the better.
The book starts in media res, and I'll admit that it took a little bit of time for me to settle into the story and situate myself within the world. But what is evident from the first pages is the wealth disparity and inequity in this near-future Taipei.
"Without. We want and are left wanting."Thanks to lax environmental regulations and climate change, Taipei is heavily polluted by a toxic smog and viruses run rampant. Jin Corp has developed a way to survive in this new normal: special suits and regulated air spaces for those who can afford it. For everyone else? Their lives are brutal and not expected to go beyond 40.
"Books were my escapism, my retreat. They were how I related to this senseless world we lived in."Want is told in the first-person perspective of Zhou, who lost his mother to pneumonia because they couldn't afford to treat it. He and his friends are tired of the status quo developed over the past two generations; the quiet acceptance and adaptation to a polluted world. And they're determined to do something about it. (It's in the synopsis, so I won't rehash it.)
This is a book with a bit of a slow build, but the plot offers just enough information to keep the reader reading and guessing. I found this to be mainly plot-driven and by the middle of the book I was unable to put the book down! I was least invested in the actual heist bits for some reason, but really came to love the characters by the end of the book. There is a sapphic relationship that is legit my favorite, in addition to Zhou's forbidden romantic interests with his enemy's daughter, but romance isn't a huge part of this story, though it likely will in Ruse.
"Taipei's youth had become chameleons. If we couldn't change the dirty smog that smothered our city, we could at least control how we appeared."Privilege is at the fore of this story, and our main character Zhou is left navigating the you world he despises. One of my favorite tropes is when a character learns their worldview is limited, and in Want it is two-fold. I appreciate how he brings up that throwing money at a symptom doesn't fix the issues in society, and that at least one of the yous at the party agrees with him, prompting an actual discussion. "Reality always crushes your ideals", but I like how the characters in the book refuse to sit idly and wait for death.
The world Pon crafted is bleak and terrifyingly plausible. Her descriptions of Taipei, heavily polluted and dystopian, painted a clear picture of my mind. I like how the tech is close enough to what we have now; it feels different but familiar, which adds to the question "well, how far into the future are we?" unease. In terms of the world-building, I wish it had been clear earlier whether or not the pollution issues were limited to Taipei or global. (As well as one other gripe that is a massive spoiler.) It feels like there is a lot more to be developed on these fronts that I hope will be tackled in Ruse.
This is a duology about the haves versus the have-nots: the yous versus the meis. Taipei in this near-future has most definitely stratified a population on the brink of devastation for profit: those who can afford fancy suits and regulated air spaces live normal lives, unbothered by the suffering of everyone else. It's tough to not read this book during the COVID-19 pandemic and think about the parallels as it pertains to healthcare, and I think that is what makes this such a chilling read. It's not only plausible, but probable.
"The rich wear special suits that protect them from the pollution and viruses that plague the city."Overall, I enjoyed Want and am excited to dive straight into Ruse! I'll admit that reading this book during a pandemic is a little on-the-nose frightening, so be sure you're in the right headspace to pick this one up. It's an important discussion of society and privilege, and is even more relevant now.
✨ This was the Read Voraciously Book Club pick for May 2020!
Representation: Asian representation, f/f relationship
Content warnings: death, loss of a loved one, lab animals and testing, murder, viral epidemic (wearing facemasks, coughing spreads virus)
Blog | Twitter | Pinterest