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Book Review: Inspection by Josh Malerman

Inspection by Josh Malerman

Del Rey, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1524796990

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Hot on the heels of the biggest Netflix movie of all time, Bird Box, Josh Malerman is poised to continue his climb to stardom in this stellar new novel, a strange story that takes a left turn through the woods of Michigan instead of following a well-trodden road.

For anyone who has read him, Malerman a refreshing read because he eschews the normal, refusing  to follow formula: he entertains  readers. as well as forcing them to think. Bird Box, Malerman’s first novel, has been followed by Black Mad Wheel (music was the antagonist, allegedly), Goblin (a connected set of stories), and Unbury Carol (a western/horror/romance),

Inspection may remind some of 1984 or The Giver. The premise is that two towers exist in the forest, each just barely out of sight of the other. Within each, 26 students are raised from birth, given names of simply letters. The Alphabet Boys. The Letter Girls.  Neither is aware the other sex exists. The leaders of the experiment, D.A.D. and M.O.M., train their prodigies in several subjects, the arts, and more, honing the twelve-year-olds for mysterious lives.

The initial sections force the reader to push past the typical storytelling format, as the characters and setting require an intricate set up. Assigning each student only a letter for a name accomplishes both identity and sameness, the reason of which will reveal itself in layers. The schooling and activities impressed upon the students are mindbending and brutal: bizarre games and social events that twist in logic and morality.

J suspects something exists beyond the borders of his world when he sees a shadowy figure beyond a tree in the yard. It sends him on a journey that will alter him in ways he never thought possible, changing how he views his compartmentalized world. When a strange book lands on the students’ beds one day, one that reveals the truths about life outside of the school, the walls begin to crumble and terror of a new kind creeps into the students’ lives, one that could send them to “the corner,” a place from where no one has ever returned.

K embarks on a similar path, one that will bring her to a world she never knew existed.

Inspection will challenge readers. The result of Malerman’s story is a rewarding psychological journey that is guaranteed to garner him new readers and please his fans. His examination of the human condition, and of the “nature vs. nurture” debate, is relevant to the educational system and parenting today’s youth.

Finding a genre that fits this story will be a tough task, but one that should be determined by each reader. Inspection is destined to become one of the most talked about novels of 2019– and  it should be. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Posted on March 19, 2019 by , Reply

Musings: “We Have Always Been At War With Eastasia” : Future-Proofing The News

         

 

The Monster Kid tells me he is writing a dystopian alternate history, beginning in 2012, where there is perpetual war.  “You know, like in the book where we have always been at war with Eastasia but then they change the news.”

In case you aren’t familiar with it, this is a reference to George Orwell’s 1984, in which the main character works in the “Ministry of Truth,” destroying or rewriting past news that doesn’t reflect the current reality the government wants people to buy into (in this case, an ongoing war with Eurasia ends and a new one with Eastasia begins, and history has to be rewritten to erase the war with Eurasia). Creepy, but in a fictional way, right?

Reality is so much worse. In M.T. Anderson’s YA biography of composer Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad, Anderson has to return to the reader again and again, to explain that there is no good way to untangle the contradictions in the stories about Shostakovich’s life, even the ones he told himself, because of the contortions the truth had to go through to be acceptable to the Stalinist regime and prevent him from suffering a truly horrific ending. Reading this, I realized that 1984 is a pale shadow of the reality of repression and brutality under the Soviet regime and its effects on the arts, literature, and the press, especially under Stalin (and that doesn’t even begin to cover the horrors of the siege of Leningrad). I can’t recommend this book highly enough– it’s an outstanding, if horrific, book for both older teens and adults.

In The Infernal Library, Daniel Kalder asserts that dictators have not only repressed the press and the arts,  in some places they even managed to completely erase history. Many of the little provinces and countries that were drawn in to the U.S.S.R. at the beginning of the 20th century had a limited number of literate people, and when the U.S.S.R. dissolved, the president of Turkmenistan completely invented a history and religion for his country, complete with his own cult of personality, and with no press and few additional books available for comparison (I don’t recommend this one for purchase, but the chapters on dictator literature from some of the lesser-known dictators are fascinating, so see if your library has it. Did you know Saddam Hussein wrote romance novels?)

So how can we keep this erasure and rewriting of history from happening, especially in our era of  “fake news”? Honestly, it’s pretty hard to do. History usually gets written by the winners, and, just like in 1984, it’s not that difficult to destroy and rewrite the version you want, or to make it impossible to report on anything that could make you look bad.  In Future-Proofing the News: Preserving the First Draft of History, Kathleen Hansen and Nora Paul report that even when nobody is deliberately trying to prevent the news from being accurately reported, time and environmental conditions can destroy it.  Many of the formats news has been recorded were ephemeral or are now obsolete. Newspapers and magnetic tapes get brittle, hyperlinks break, devices used to record and play back break down. And there is such a quantity of news that many places are unable to store it or make it accessible. Just as a concerted effort needs to be made to repress the press, concerted efforts need to be made to save the news of the past for the present and future. If you are a historian, journalist, archivist, librarian, or otherwise interested citizen, this is worth reading.

We can’t guarantee that primary sources will always be accurate in their reporting. Both in the past and present there have been a multiplicity of sources and points of view, although I’d say that’s truer today than ever before. But sometimes there is only fear shaping the reported facts, as was the case under Stalin, or there is nothing there at all, as in Turkmenistan, and that is terrifying. The free press is not an enemy: it is essential to keeping civic discourse, the arts and literature, and democracy, alive. When you vote tomorrow, keep that in mind.

 

And please, do vote. Regardless of what you think, your vote matters.

 

Posted on November 6, 2018 by , Reply

Book List: 6 Great YA Dystopian Novels

Even though the media-generated excitement over teen dystopias like the ones in The Hunger Games and (to a lesser degree) Divergent, has died down a bit, anyone living through the past year can see that dystopian fiction is still terrifyingly relevant. Some days it really doesn’t feel like we’re all that far from living through The Handmaid’s Tale, and George R.R. Martin’s early story “And Death His Legacy” is so prescient that it made me shiver.

A lot of dystopian novels have a depressing world view: the main character’s attempt to change things is thwarted, and, even if that character survives intact, the world they live in doesn’t really alter (Winston, in 1984, is one of the most broken characters ever).

What is different about most YA dystopias is that there’s an individual there who starts to question the status quo, and acts to change it– not without some horrifying struggles, but usually, they’re successful at either overturning the system or escaping to establish one they hope will be better. In the recently released book on children’s and YA horror, Reading in the Dark, there is an essay suggesting that YA dystopian novels aren’t necessarily about individual self-discovery: they are more about teens figuring out their responsibilities to society. I think it’s both. Seeing that there is a possibility to change things, and that it could be one person, a teen not all that different from them, who instigates that change, makes YA dystopian fiction a literature of hope. It makes me optimistic for the future.

That being said, here are some excellent YA dystopias that start with a (usually) pretty ordinary kid chosen to perpetuate the system, who ends up creating a better world.

 

 

The Giver by Lois Lowry

You can’t go wrong with this Newbery Award winner that tells the story of Jonas, living in a future utopian society, who is chosen, in a ceremony with his peers where they are all assigned jobs for their adult lives, to be the Receiver of Memories, the one person allowed to know the memories of the past in human history. It’s not as action-oriented as Divergent, but packs a much more powerful and memorable emotional punch. The Giver is part of a four-book series, but the first is the best and definitely stands alone. There is a movie based on the book that was released a few years ago. Be aware that euthanasia and eugenics are important to the plot, and part of why the book is so heartbreaking.

 

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

This is the first book in the Razorland trilogy (which now also includes two novellas), and it’s quite a bit more graphic than the first two books, probably on par with Divergent. In yet another post-apocalyptic underground world (one decidedly more primitive than Ember) Deuce goes through her naming ceremony and becomes a Hunter in her enclave, a sort of tribal society. As a Hunter, Deuce is supposed to find and catch food and rid the tunnels around her enclave of Freaks, ravening, cannibalistic creatures. Although she’s a believer in the way things work in her enclave, her exposure to a wider world and a partner who’s not so convinced lead her to question the actions of her leaders.

 

 

 

 The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The city of Ember is an underground city built as a last refuge in a world about to be annihilated by nuclear weapons. Two hundred years later, everything, from food to electricity, is running out. After the ceremony where Lina and Doon, along with their peers, are assigned their future careers, the two of them trade places, and discover a puzzling mystery they must solve to save the residents of Ember from darkness. This has more action than The Giver, and more of a mystery at its center, and is a compelling read even for those of us well over the target age range. The City of Ember is also part of a series, and all of them are great reads. It has been made into a movie already, with Bill Murray as the corrupt mayor. and I really enjoyed it.

 

 

 

  Across The Universe by Beth Revis

The first book in a trilogy, this science fiction thriller is told from the point of view of  two teenagers– Amy, the only person not specifically chosen for a role in settlement of a new planet, and Elder, whose future leadership of the spaceship Godspeed was chosen early in his life. There’s mystery, cloning, genetic and hormonal manipulation, general lying and betrayal, and a surprising amount of action given that this all takes place in a closed environment. In some ways, it reminded me very much of The Giver. There’s suicide, near-rape, and euthanasia in this book, among other things, although I think Revis handles it all pretty well. The target audience for Divergent should enjoy this.

 

 

 

Legend by Marie Lu

June is the elite of the elite, being groomed for a position high up in the military in a dystopian society that’s more or less under military rule. Day is a rebel trying to undermine it.  What could possibly go wrong when their lives intersect?
 

 

 

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Here’s one that’s interesting because almost everyone is chosen, eventually. It’s not wanting to be chosen that makes Tally stick out. Or, to make it more complicated, it’s wanting to be chosen but having to pretend she doesn’t want to be chosen and standing out as special when she wants to blend in. And then changing her mind. And changing it again. While it could stand alone, I think, it’s a good thing it’s part of a series because I have no clue where it’s going to end up. Westerfeld pretty much turns the tropes on their heads.

 

 

 

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared with a different introduction at Musings of the Monster Librarian on March 3, 2015.

Posted on June 8, 2016 by , 1 comment
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