ACID

Acid by Emma Pass
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There seem to be some impressive dystopians both set in and are written by authors in the UK these days. This is definitely one.

ACID, (Agency for Crime Investigation and Defense) refers to a controlling regime that has taken over Britain in the near future. The country is now called the Independent Republic of Britain and is completely closed off from the rest of the world. There is a resistance group struggling to gather evidence to peacefully end the regime, a splinter group of anarchists who just want to blow things up, and a horrible dictator/leader/military head determined to take over. And although we don't know much about the planet at large, we don't need to know. We only are told that it is not controlled like the IRB. That said, the world building here is substantial. The society is well-defined and the general description of the place was easy to visualize. The writing here was vivid with detail; it was easy to feel the freezing cold of the Orkney Islands and smell the moldy books of an abandoned library.

The character development was equally well done. Jenna Strong is a formidable character but not without her weaknesses. So often in these sorts of stories the heroine is undefeated, occasionally scared but always capable and triumphing. Not so with Jenna Strong. She is caught fleeing, beaten up, drugged, cursed by friends she comes to love, shot. When she gets out of a tough spot it is usually because someone helped her out, not generally on her own volition. There were also moments when she lost her memory and immediately reached out to the bad people who caused it - because what else would she do? Some might say this was her not thinking for herself. But it was realistic and lent an edgy vibe to the story. She was brave, but bravery is often as stupid as it is clever. She was also reasonably intelligent and made mistakes that mere humans make.

The pacing in this book was fabulous. It moved along and the action really didn't stop. Just about the time there seemed to be a lull, things picked right up again and the shooting and sneaking around began. The tension was always strung tight. There were surprises and things in general were not predictable.

There was the question as to why the main character was so important. This seems to crop up on a regular basis with these sorts of stories - what made her so special that the highest person in the government wanted her dead? Or for the rebels to want her alive? This question wasn't clearly answered here; the reason given was pretty weak.

The resolution of the book could also been seen as somewhat anti-climatic: the rebel group wants to bring the regime to justice by trying them for crimes against humanity. Not your general "shoot them all and the good guys win" sort of thing, but again, this makes the story a bit different. It still got the job done and it was a refreshing change from the standard YA dystopian.

The audiobook is narrated by Fiona Hardingham and she was incredible. One of the better narrators out there, she distinguished each character and read with engrossing emotion.

This book deserves a wide audience and a lot of success. So many stories like it are badly done, so it's nice to encounter one that rises to the top and delivers.





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