All These Things I've Done (Birthright Trilogy, #1)

by Gabrielle Zevin

[clementine]

I guess I shouldn't have expected much from yet another first-in-a-dystopian-trilogy YA offering, but I like the other books I've read by Gabrielle Zevin and the premise was so promising.

Everything about this book fell flat to me. It was like we got hints of something interesting, but it was never fully explored. Zevin's reimagining of New York City could have been incredibly rich and innovative, but instead we only got a few details. There was also no real explanation of why caffeine and chocolate were banned, no exploration of the role of religion in society (even though it was obviously there), no explanation as to how the world got to where it was.

The characters were also wooden - none of them really had any prominent personality traits, motivations, etc. Anya was an okay narrator, but I didn't really feel that much sympathy for her. And the dialogue was awful. Nobody talks like that anymore! This book is set in the future, not the past.

There wasn't actually that much plot, and it was slow and meandering. It was a romance above all else, which is a common trend in YA "dystopian" that bothers me. This one also just wasn't particularly well-written, so I didn't connect with it at all.

I don't think I'll read the second in the series. This was just really, really disappointing, and I know Gabrielle Zevin can do better.