Title: Possession
Book 1
Dystopian YA
Published 6/7/11 by Simon & Schuster
Vi knows the Rule: Girls don’t walk with boys, and they never even think about kissing them. But no one makes Vi want to break the Rules more than Zenn…and since the Thinkers have chosen him as Vi’s future match, how much trouble can one kiss cause? The Thinkers may have brainwashed the rest of the population, but Vi is determined to think for herself.
But the Thinkers are unusually persuasive, and they’re set on convincing Vi to become one of them…starting by brainwashing Zenn. Vi can’t leave Zenn in the Thinkers’ hands, but she’s wary of joining the rebellion, especially since that means teaming up with Jag. Jag is egotistical, charismatic, and dangerous–everything Zenn’s not. Vi can’t quite trust Jag and can’t quite resist him, but she also can’t give up on Zenn.
This is a game of control or be controlled. And Vi has no choice but to play.
Review:
Let’s take a second to examine that cover, shall we? It’s pretty, but the picture doesn’t capture the pearlescent sheen on the physical book. Which is so, SO pretty and in my opinion really makes the cover complete.
When I read the summary for this one, I was reminded irresistibly of Matched by Ally Condie. We have the dystopian society, for one. Then there’s the fact that Vi, like Condie’s Cassia’s whole really likes the match that society has chosen for her: he’s her best friend. But she can’t help being overwhelmingly attracted to someone else– and falling in love with him.
But after reading the book, that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
I really enjoyed the circumstances of Johnson’s unique dystopian protagonist. Vi has never really been content with her ruling government. She breaks the laws– all the time. In fact the book opens on her eighth offense (seventh time they catch her).
Not like Cassia who was happy until she discovers that she could have had another match (Condie’s Matched). Not like Tally, who wanted nothing more than to join Pretty society until the Specials sent her after a friend (Westerfeld’s Uglies). Not even like Katniss, who while not really happy with her circumstances, never thought things would change until she was forced to fight for her life (Collins’s The Hunger Games).
There were also several twists that threw me for a loop, but for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I won’t say exactly what they are. One was hinted at enough that I sort of saw it coming, but was right there with Vi when the information was revealed and she tries to reconcile what she remembers with what she’s learned. I sort of wish the second twist had been explored a bit more because I felt like Vi should have been thrown more than she was.
However, the pacing for a large majority, was stilted. Things moved quickly, almost too quickly. Readers barely have time to process everything that happens before they were thrown into something else.
The bigger problems I had with this novel were largely with the characters themselves: Vi seems to have two modes: pissed off or confused. She is so angry. All. The. Time. I couldn’t begin to count the amount of times that she “growled.” It made her difficult to connect with.
Jag never does what he says he’ll do. He’s smug and self-righteous and never keeps his word to Vi, constantly abandoning her. I just didn’t understand his appeal.
I didn’t get how a relationship blossomed from that. When they claim to love each other, I seriously did a double-take. Their relationship felt false.
The ending of this book, however, was absolutely brilliant. If someone had asked me how I thought it would end, I may have had a few ideas, but this wasn’t one of them. It was at once believable and unexpected.
Rating: 2.5/5, maybe inching towards a three because of the last 100 pages of this book saved it for me. Before that I really thought that it was going to be a 1 or 2 star rating, but it was hard to make it through the pages before that. I think that the writing was better, the pacing for the scenes improved, and I in no way saw the ending coming. I’ll probably stick around for the sequel.
