Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
Reviewed for Monster Librarian. com
Harlequin, 2010
ISBN: 978-0373210060
Available: New after April 1, 2010
In Trella’s world, things are black and white. She is Inside. Outside is a mythical place that doesn’t exist, a tool used to control her and her fellow Lowers, scrubs who are jam packed into large dorms, fed slop, and endlessly doing the most menial jobs. Above them are the Uppers, people the Lowers aren’t allowed to interact with, who live comfortable lives in families that serve as overseers of Inside. Trella is Queen of the Pipes, a pipe cleaner who finds more of a home in the maze of heating and air ducts than with her fellow scrubs. It’s this reputation that draws her into a plot by Broken Man, a paralyzed prophet from the Uppers. Trella doesn’t believe him, until she finds the discs he smuggled from the computer systems, discs that hold the location to the Gateway, the way Outside.
Inside Out is a very well-spun science fiction tale, in the spirit of Bradbury, Huxley and Orwell. Snyder creates an uncomfortable, overcrowded, paranoid and repressed society with far too many questions than answers and plenty of conspiracy. This is no ordinary YA Harlequin novel, rather, it’s a new dystopian tale for a new generation of readers. Inside Out walks a razor’s edge between stifling readers with its dystopian elements and offering hope of change, and answers to all the questions it raises. There is a love story, but it is by far not the focus of the story. The weight of Inside Out is on the people themselves, the crew of rebels and faceless scrubs, with their surprising depth and drive.
Inside Out is absolutely a must read for speculative fiction fans, a valuable addition to public and private collections and easily has wide spread appeal for capturing adult and teen audiences. Easy to digest, modern and designed to appeal to teens, Inside Out would also be an excellent tool in classrooms to teach the concepts traditionally learned through books like Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and 1984.