Enclave by Kit Reed

[mrissa]

Review copy sent to me by Tor.

This is a one of these. If you like these, you will probably like this one, but if you don't like these, this one will probably not convert you.

I was hoping it would convert me.

Non-spoilery plot summary: world is going to hell in a handbasket. The ultra-rich give their children over to a brand-new boarding school that promises to isolate them completely from the rest of the world, particularly the media. The ultra-rich, including some self-made folks who Really Ought To Know Better, do not bother to look into the staff of this boarding school to find out whether they are the sort of people who ought to be given the care of children. Or hamsters. Or small, sturdy houseplants. The isolated boarding school turns out not to protect the children from all harm. Chaos ensues.

You were really surprised about the chaos ensuing, right? And about the bit where the children were not protected from all harm?

Seriously, this is well-written on the sentence level. It was not a bad book; it was not the kind of book you would read out to your friends to have a good laugh. But I felt that Reed relied very heavily on brand-names for the near-contemporary feel. In some ways this is good--better to just have her write "World of Warcraft" when that's clearly what she meant, than to have her come up with some coy "Universe of the Art of War" MMORPG. If she's not going to change iPods, better to have them be iPods than xMuzik. On the other hand, it felt to me like it was dated before it hit the shelf. It felt like the brand-names were standing in for actual social analysis/speculation. That's not a good thing. It was extremely repetitive, because with multiple POV switches we often got the same event over and over from different perspectives, while other aspects were very underdeveloped or were not handled at all consistently.

Also, the very ending felt tacked-on and weird to me. Particularly the characters who turned out to get married when they were grown up: seriously, was this written by a group of 12-year-old girls? And the people who started out seeming somewhat redeemable still seemed somewhat redeemable at the end, and the people who didn't...didn't.

If you are a fan of books at boarding schools, or of near-futures-gone-mad, this is probably going to do pretty well for you. I kept wanting to like it more. I just...didn't.

Comments

[carbonel]

Actually, your description makes me want to read it. It sounds a bit like John Barnes' Orbital Resonance, which I adored.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was completely serious that if you want a one of these, you will want this one.

[carbonel]

Could I borrow your copy when we get together?

And would it be possible to get together sometime soon? If you're feeling social, that is.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes and probably not real soon, respectively. I am already overpromised on socializing with people who are not on my calendar yet, but I am glad to lend Enclave when I manage to work my way through prior commitments to getting something scheduled with you, and will now add you to the mental list of People I Should Schedule With One Of These Days.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

If I like near-futures-gone-mad, but am only enh on boarding schools, what're the odds of my wanting this one?

Particularly the characters who turned out to get married when they were grown up.

Oh...dear.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The near-future-gone-madness is not that big a step up from the present gone-madness.

[roane.livejournal.com]

Hm. I read her book Thinner Than Thou, and had a very similar reaction. Well okay, not VERY similar--I seem to recall leaving a pretty frothy review on Amazon about it--but yes. Similar themes (near-future-gone-mad for no logical reason whatsoever, pseudo-analysis of current issues, etc.), writing that wasn't terrible but just didn't do it for me. I was very enh altogether.

[elsue.livejournal.com]

I read a story of hers in an anthology (Perpetua? something like that) that grabbed me and pulled me along at a run. So I picked up a novel of hers (Thinner Than Thou, which someone else mentioned), and went Huh? Is this the same writer?

Wonder if she has other stories...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sometimes one really yearns for more readily available single-author short story collections.

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Well, hm, I'm a fan of both books at boarding schools (Tom Brown's School Days, lots of John Irving, etc.) and of near-futures gone mad (Oryx and Crake, lots of Philip K. Dick, etc.) -- but I don't think I'd like this book.

Kit's a nice lady, though.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Most of the people I've met in this field are really nice, and I'm aware that they're real people who read stuff about their books, so that makes it somewhat harder to give lukewarm or negative reviews.

On the other hand, if I praise everything, my praise is worth nothing. And if I only read books I'm absolutely sure I'll like, I'll miss a lot--and still be wrong and have stuff to complain about sometimes. So.

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. My own tendency is to be silent about the books I dislike, just because I don't enjoy writing about them. It makes me cross. But the sort of book you describe wouldn't appeal to me.

And about Kit, I was mostly name-dropping. I doubt she'd know me if she saw me. ;)

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

>> Seriously, this is well-written on the sentence level.

In the future, I really hope no one ever has to defend something I wrote by breaking out this sentence.

(But yes, this was a valuable distinction for the work you were reviewing.)

>> Also, the very ending felt tacked-on and weird to me. Particularly the characters who turned out to get married when they were grown up: seriously, was this written by a group of 12-year-old girls?

I think I just learned one of the rules of writing a decent epilogue.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Rule One: if you can avoid an "N years later" epilogue, do so. End the book. Then walk away.

Rule Two: no gratuitous intercharacter marriages.

Rule Zero: if it all turns out to have been a dream, hallucination, or other non-verifiably-real event, we will all kill you.