Written by Blythe Woolston
MARTians by Blythe Woolston is about a young woman named Zoe who has just graduated in the dystopian world she lives in. She can either wait to be kicked from her home, or move to a place called The Warren. The Warren is an abandoned mall where those who have been left behind go to stay. The good thing about The Warren is it is near the place Zoe works, ALLMART. Zoe does not want to work there though. She wants to live, feel alive and experience different things. She may be the last girl, her name means life. She wants to make her name true and not get stuck at ALLMART for the rest of her life. Most of the book takes place in a city and where Zoe works, ALLMART, and The Warren.
The relationship Annamom and Zoe have is very unique. Annamom has taken care of Zoe for almost her whole life, but now she has moved away leaving Zoe to decide whether to stay at her home and wait for it to be foreclosed, or move to The Warren. Zoe depended on Annamom and since she moved away, Zoe and her relationship with each other has been strongly impacted. They are not as close as they previously had been when they lived together.
This book has many good points. It teaches us to be independent and do what we want to do. Zoe, for example, went against what was expected of her and lived her life. Though it was slightly out of fear, the times she had were great. What the author did well was describe, in good detail, the characters as well as the many different situations they were in. I liked the book because it had a little bit of a surprise aspect to it. At one moment, the characters would be in one situation, and a few chapters, or even pages later, another nearly intense scene would surface. The way the author writes is interesting. She does well at describing and detailing things, but the names were unique as well as the settings in the story.
It seemed that what the author is trying to tell us is to live our lives the way we want to. Not the way others want us to. She is showing us that we need to be more independent and rely less on those who care for us. Relying on them is fine, but we all need at least some sense of independence or we will be unable to live our lives the way we desire. If we do not have any independence, goals, or desires to live our lives freely such as Zoe did, we would never get anywhere or do anything that makes us fully happy.
Do you recommend this book?
No
Language
PG
Sexual Content
PG
Violence
PG
Drug and Alcohol Use
G
Review by Tyson, Student, Cyprus High School Media Center
Rating: ★★★✩✩ (3 stars)
Interest Level: YA
MARTians
Written by Blythe Woolston
Candlewick Press
216 pages
Release Date: October 13, 2015
A review copy was provided by the publisher.
Thanks for your review.