Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder

 Inside Out
by Maria V. Snyder

 from Goodreads (because this synopsis is a great tease)
I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? Not like it's all that dangerous - the only neck I risk is my own. Until I accidently start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution. I should have just said no...




Okay.  Let's begin with the fact that I got a digital copy of this early, which -- no, no, no, let's go back farther.  Let's begin with the fact that I met MVS back in November (and I never posted pictures or notes of the rollicking good time that was had by all), and at dinner, she told us about the book she was working on that was due to come out in, oh, 1/2 a year (the tease).  It was a YA dystopian novel she says, and then I drifted out a bit, because could she have said anything more up my alley?  Maria V. Snyder, she of the series' and the characters that make my book club get really loud and inappropriate and, dare I say, fangirlish, was writing a YA. DYSTOPIAN. NOVEL.  She somehow read my dreams.

But I didn't want to get my hopes up.  Too 'up', anyway, because that's not fair, and there were all kinds of what ifs.  YA dystopia is not her norm -- what if she can't write YA?  What if she can't write dystopia?  What if I *gulp* hate it.

What if I drive myself crazy with worry slash ineeditnow, when I know damn well that it's going to have her talent and character-driven goodness behind it.  Back to the "getting the digital copy" bit, I found it on NetGalley and snagged it for review, and what was I worried about?


All of the things I loved about Snyder's adult books are her in Inside Out.  I care about the characters, I see a budding romance, but on a YA level, the writing is super fast paced and catching, and it flows wonderfully.  Trella is definitely rootforable, and ya love her even when you want to shake her.  There was great tension and edge-of-your-seatness, and the world is fully realized and intriguing, just as her worlds always are.  All of this I've come to expect from Snyder.  AND there are 2 more good things, which I wasn't expecting. 1 - the beginning had me right from the start.  Now, this isn't to say that her beginnings don't generally grab me, because that would be a lie, but they sometimes feel like beginnings to me -- they feel clunkyish or awkward.  This was a "plunge right in, sink or swim" beginning, and it worked beautifully.  #2 - she shocked me.  ME.  I'm never surprised by anything that happens in a book.  I always see it coming, at least in part, and it's generally a question of how well it's done.  But even though I perhaps should have known -- clues were dropped, I'm not an idiot -- she shocked me.  I didn't think it could be done.  Hats off, Maria.

So I think that's all I can say.  I don't want to give anything away, I just want you teased enough that you'll go out and grab this, because trust me, it is well worth it.  And then you can sit and wait anxiously with me for the sequel, Outside In.
[laughs diabolically]

BONUS MATERIALS:

Check out Maria's site where you can read an excerpt of Inside Out.

Here's my teaser where I read one of the more disturbing (brilliant) passages of the book.