Take a photo of a barcode or cover
wordsofclover 's review for:
Blame
by Simon Mayo
I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.
Ant and Mattie are in jail but they’re not criminals. Instead, they are being punished for heritage crime - crimes committed by their parents. These new laws mean an entire new kind of prison system, one when children spend most of their childhood in jail and those serving time for the crimes of their family, nicknamed strutters, have to wear a strap to mark them out. When a prison riot break out, Ant and Mattie have a chance to escape but can they help bring the system down?
This was a really good book, and really different to other YA books I’ve read in my opinion. First off, Ant is a fantastic character - she’s tough ad strong but has a strong sense of ideals and values she upholds to and she’s relatable in how she cares for her foster parents and little brother. It also helps that she just sounds really cool with her shaved head and goose tattoos.
The world building in this was fantastic. I really got a sense of the prison system and how it worked and the flashbacks we got served their purpose really well in the introduction of the heritage crime laws and how they came about and were actually received and carried out.
I love that Ant and Mattie were bi-racial but that we learned about this more from their language rather than constant mentions of their skin colour. I actually found the frequent uses of Haitian-Creole between Ant and Mattie really soothing, and it helped to confirm the lovely bond between the two. There’s isn’t too much of an emphasis on romance in this book - it’s clear a few male characters might have some feelings for Ant but she’s pretty realistic in that there’s way too many things going on for her to actually focus on romance and I loved that.
Some of the decisions by the characters didn’t make that much sense to me near the end but I think it was because i would have logically just tried to get to Germany and safety rather than try and rescue everyone else in what seems like a futile attempt. There was a great sense of tension and urgency throughout the book which made it a fast-paced, exciting read that really kept me on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Ant and Mattie are in jail but they’re not criminals. Instead, they are being punished for heritage crime - crimes committed by their parents. These new laws mean an entire new kind of prison system, one when children spend most of their childhood in jail and those serving time for the crimes of their family, nicknamed strutters, have to wear a strap to mark them out. When a prison riot break out, Ant and Mattie have a chance to escape but can they help bring the system down?
This was a really good book, and really different to other YA books I’ve read in my opinion. First off, Ant is a fantastic character - she’s tough ad strong but has a strong sense of ideals and values she upholds to and she’s relatable in how she cares for her foster parents and little brother. It also helps that she just sounds really cool with her shaved head and goose tattoos.
The world building in this was fantastic. I really got a sense of the prison system and how it worked and the flashbacks we got served their purpose really well in the introduction of the heritage crime laws and how they came about and were actually received and carried out.
I love that Ant and Mattie were bi-racial but that we learned about this more from their language rather than constant mentions of their skin colour. I actually found the frequent uses of Haitian-Creole between Ant and Mattie really soothing, and it helped to confirm the lovely bond between the two. There’s isn’t too much of an emphasis on romance in this book - it’s clear a few male characters might have some feelings for Ant but she’s pretty realistic in that there’s way too many things going on for her to actually focus on romance and I loved that.
Some of the decisions by the characters didn’t make that much sense to me near the end but I think it was because i would have logically just tried to get to Germany and safety rather than try and rescue everyone else in what seems like a futile attempt. There was a great sense of tension and urgency throughout the book which made it a fast-paced, exciting read that really kept me on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait to see what comes next.