The Book of Ivy

by Amy Engel

[shannonmiz]

I thought I knew where this book was headed. I thought, as I read the first few chapters, that this was textbook dystopian, and I'd be bored. Well, I was wrong.

The beginning started a bit slow, and a bit predictable (hence the half-star deduction) with all the "typical" YA tropes: Arranged marriage, small group of people trying to "fight back" against the "evil leaders", etc. I was pretty much sure I knew how the whole thing was going to unfold. I actually started getting mad when Ivy wore a bathing suit, because how could lycra survive the apocalypse?

But then. Things started to change. The world wasn't as cut and dry as it seemed. Neither were the villains. And the whole book started to take on a very, very different tone. Of course, Bishop is not the evil minion that her family insisted he would be. But is his family? As the days go by, and Ivy gets a more well-rounded look at the world around her, it becomes harder and harder to decipher good from bad, truth from lie, right from wrong. Everything she has ever known is turned upside down. And the best part is, I didn't know the answer! It just isn't that simple. The Book of Ivy raises all kinds of questions for Ivy, Bishop, and the reader. There were political issues, and familial issues, and the biggest of them all, morality issues.

As pieces of the story unraveled, I found myself absolutely floored at the revelations. My head was spinning, and just when I thought I knew who or what to root for, like Ivy I would be thrown through another loop.

Ivy was certainly a character that I could feel for. While she wasn't always completely likable, she made sense. She'd certainly been through a lot during her life, and didn't really have a lot of support. Her family was quite focused on their mission and preparing Ivy for it, and weren't really focused on building Ivy up as a person. Bishop was insanely likable, and it was easy to see that he cared for people in general. There is no instalove (quite the opposite!) and no love triangle of any kind. Ivy's father and sister were quite cold, and unfeeling so it was hard for me to like them, but it made it very easy for me to see why Ivy was so eager to try to please them. I can't say much more about anyone without giving things away, but the motives and complexity of the characters added to the overall feeling of uncertainty surrounding the book.

When I finished the book, I had two thoughts: The first was "I need the sequel NOW." The second was "wait- that was 400 pages?!" That was by far the fastest 400-paged book I had ever read. Once I got into it, and realized it was not at all a cookie-cutter dystopian, I absolutely could not put it down.

*ARC received for review