Review: Inside Out by Maria V Snyder

Keep Your Head Down.  Don't Get Noticed.
Or Else.

I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution.

I am a massive fan of Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study series, and when I heard she was doing a whole new type of book, I was so excited; unfortunately, I couldn’t find it anywhere local and subsequently forgot about it. I saw Inside Out at my local bookstore last week and bought it. I finished it within three hours.

What I think is beautiful about Snyder’s writing is the pacing. She has so many things happening but doesn’t make it seem rushed, which is a skill few writers possess. She also manages to create loveable, honest characters and a loveable honest romance storyline, without throwing it in our faces. I fell in (metaphorical book character) love with Yelena in the Poison Study series, and was so scared I wouldn’t feel the same about Trella. I did, and despite the fact Inside Out is a million miles away from Poison Study. The story still enthralled me the same way. I love dystopian stories as much magic-fantasy and this book had me addicted!

Trella is a strong character, she starts out as a rebellious outcast kid and in the novel we see her evolve into a strong leader, while I feel she started out a little flat and unrelateable, her struggles changed my mind and I found myself really liking her by the end. Her love interest Riley is another character I thought was a little flat to start with, and I didn’t really like him as much as I should have, though I loved the way the romance developed, as a background story rather than a full on romance! It was slow and sweet and believable.

The story itself was simple but complex (oxymoron, I know!). It had a lot going on, but the pacing was so fantastic that I managed to keep up and not have to back-track pages thinking ‘eh? When did that happen’. her descriptions were simple to follow, when she was explaining the set up of Inside, I could follow it easily.

As always, a good book has to have a good twist and hey! This twist was just amazing!! It had me reeling and I didn’t even expect it, usually I know what is going to happen, but as always, Snyder creates such a unique plot that it’s almost impossible to guess what is going to happen.

What was a little unbelievable was the fact that all problems had a solution; all information was on data you could just hack into and if you needed to do something- hey just invent a machine for it!

All in all, I think I may be in love with this book, and I HAVE to get Outside In. SOON!

Because the characters may have been a little flat and the technology side was unbelievable, I’m giving this book

Overall rating: A-



Other books by this author:
Touch of Power (Healer #1)
Scent of Magic (Healer #2)