Short reviews: BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS by Anna Godbersen and DARK PARTIES by Sara Grant

December 1, 2010

Bright Young Things
Author: Anna Godbersen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 389
ISBN: 9780061962660
Publication date: 12 October 2010
Review book source: my library

In 1929, Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey set out from their Ohio town for glittery New York City. Though the two friends escape their bleak Midwestern lives together, each has her own ambitions: Letty to become a famous actress and singer, and Cordelia to find her father. The story is occasionally difficult to swallow–Cordelia is too readily accepted by her father once she finds him–and it takes until nearly the end of the book to pick up. Godbersen’s narrative also follows a third person, society girl Astrid Donal, but Astrid’s disaffected languor sometimes translates to just being boring, and the three girls’ lives only fully intertwine in the last scene. However, there are plenty of parties, nights at speakeasies, and handsome young men, and the story ends with a stronger set-up for the sequel. This first book in a new series by Godbersen reveling in the last summer of the Jazz Age lacks the foreshadowing and urgency (and thus the hook) of her Luxe books, but fans of the kind of historical fiction that is a period piece, the setting a backdrop against which romances blossom and are cast aside, fortunes rise and fall, and the lives of bright young girls making their way in the world are lived will be waiting with bated breath for the next installment. 3/5.

Dark Parties
Author: Sara Grant
Publisher: Little, Brown
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780316085946
Publication date: 3 August 2011
Review book source: requested from publisher via NetGalley

Generations ago, Homeland closed its borders, sealing its citizens within the Protectosphere. In the years since, supplies have started running out and the limited gene pool has erased most physical differences between people. The government strictly controls everyone’s lives, and sometimes people go missing, leaving no trace behind. Neva and Sanna can’t stand living under that kind of control anymore, so to recruit others to their cause, they stage a Dark Party. But when Neva and Sanna begin their rebellion and the government lashes back at them, Neva thinks she may be on her own, and too deep to be saved. The title of Grant’s story is puzzling: there is only one dark party and while the book opens with it, its importance seems disconnected from the rest of what follows in Neva’s story. Some elements in Grant’s vision of the future are to be found in other dystopian stories–the protective dome over the country also appears in The Sky Inside and The Other Side of the Island, the missing citizens can be found in The Other Side of the Island, and the dwindling resources and need for recycling is prominent in The City Of Ember–but she does introduces new ideas (everyone looking the same from years of inbreeding, and there’s a disturbing twist at the end when Neva discovers that girls are exploited for their reproductive capabilities). Fans of dystopian lit will enjoy these new twists and another tale of government control gone too far, but Dark Parties fails to stand out from other offerings in the genre. 2/5.

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Tags: 2 star, 3 star, anna godbersen, dystopian lit, historical fiction, reviews, sara grant, ya lit