{"id":1143,"date":"2009-10-05T22:55:11","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T05:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2009-10-05T22:55:11","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T05:55:11","slug":"jemma-7729-by-phoebe-wray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/jemma-7729-by-phoebe-wray\/","title":{"rendered":"Jemma 7729 by Phoebe Wray"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The following is a book review I wrote for <\/a><\/em>The Leading Edge<\/a>. It will be coming out<\/em> in the November issue, along with my short story <\/em>Decision LZ150207. \u00a0The editors gave me permission to post the review here. \u00a0Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine when it comes out!<\/em><\/p>\n

Jemma is a rebel, fighting against a system that teaches women to be obedient and submissive and \u201calters\u201d those who refuse to assimilate. \u00a0After escaping the giant dome cities of a post-apocalyptic California, Jemma joins with a band of rebels known as the Movers in the free, uncultivated country. \u00a0But as her reputation grows and the people in the domes begin to take up arms, the government stops at nothing to hunt Jemma down and silence her for good.<\/p>\n

With images reminiscent of Brave New World, 1984, and A Handmaid\u2019s Tale, Jemma7729 is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel with a YA feel. \u00a0The first half of the book details Jemma\u2019s childhood and her transformation from daughter of two mid-level government workers to a rebel fighting to overthrow the system. \u00a0I enjoyed the first part of this novel, with its intimate human drama and its resourceful, sympathetic viewpoint character. \u00a0The story was paced well and kept my interest.<\/p>\n

The second half of the book, however, was somewhat disappointing. \u00a0Once Jemma escapes the domes and begins her campaign as a rebel terrorist, the story loses a lot of tension. \u00a0Even though she is barely a twelve year old girl, she still, without any outside assistance, manages to blow up almost a dozen government facilities without getting caught or killed. \u00a0The villains\u2019 reasons for creating such an oppressive, anti-feminist regime are never adequately explained, and when Jemma starts to fight back, the government is too weak to put up a believable resistance. \u00a0The middle of the novel lags considerably, with very little real action or suspense.<\/p>\n

When the pace finally does pick up again, about forty pages from the end, the action is so confusing and happens so quickly that I felt completely lost. \u00a0The main character\u2019s voice gets lost in a blow-by-blow account of impossibly rapid events, as if the author was trying to compress two hundred pages of story into less than a quarter of that space. \u00a0I fount it disappointing and inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the book. \u00a0However, the twist at the end caught me by surprise and gave me some degree of satisfaction as I finished the book, though I would have been more satisfied if the last half of the book had been as good as the first half.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Review of JEMMA7729<\/div>\n
Joe Vasicek<\/div>\n
Jemma is a rebel, fighting against a system that teaches women to be obedient and submissive and \u201calters\u201d those who refuse to assimilate. \u00a0After escaping the giant dome cities of a post-apocalyptic California, Jemma joins with a band of rebels known as the Movers in the free, uncultivated country. \u00a0But as her reputation grows and the people in the domes begin to take up arms, the government stops at nothing to hunt Jemma down and silence her for good.<\/div>\n
With images reminiscent of Brave New World, 1984, and A Handmaid\u2019s Tale, Jemma7729 is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel with a YA feel. \u00a0The first half of the book details Jemma\u2019s childhood and her transformation from daughter of two mid-level government workers to a rebel fighting to overthrow the system. \u00a0I enjoyed the first part of this novel, with its intimate human drama and its resourceful, sympathetic viewpoint character. \u00a0The story was paced well and kept my interest.<\/div>\n
The second half of the book, however, was somewhat disappointing. \u00a0Once Jemma escapes the domes and begins her campaign as a rebel terrorist, the story loses a lot of tension. \u00a0Even though she is barely a twelve year old girl, she still, without any outside assistance, manages to blow up almost a dozen government facilities without getting caught or killed. \u00a0The villains\u2019 reasons for creating such an oppressive, anti-feminist regime are never adequately explained, and when Jemma starts to fight back, the government is too weak to put up a believable resistance. \u00a0The middle of the novel lags considerably, with very little real action or suspense.<\/div>\n
When the pace finally does pick up again, about forty pages from the end, the action is so confusing and happens so quickly that I felt completely lost. \u00a0The main character\u2019s voice gets lost in a blow-by-blow account of impossibly rapid events, as if the author was trying to compress two hundred pages of story into less than a quarter of that space. \u00a0I fount it disappointing and inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the book. \u00a0However, the twist at the end caught me by surprise and gave me some degree of satisfaction as I finished the book, though I would have been more satisfied if the last half of the book had been as good as the first half.<\/div>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a book review I wrote for The Leading Edge. It will be coming out in the November issue, along with my short story Decision LZ150207. \u00a0The editors gave me permission to post the review here. \u00a0Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine when it comes out! Jemma is a… Continue reading Jemma 7729 by Phoebe Wray<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[193,178,316,319,318,320,317,194,280],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conflict","tag-dystopian","tag-feminism","tag-pacing","tag-phoebe-wray","tag-plot-twists","tag-small-presses","tag-suspense","tag-young-adult","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-ir","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1148,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}