So cuz I'm a cheap ass I bought some books from a dollar store for 1 dollar each. I have to clarify that since some dollar stores sell stuff for way more than a dollar and still have the gall to call themselves a "dollar" store.
Anyway, one of the books I bought was The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett, published in 2015.
This is Mrs. Everett's first attempt at a novel. It's quite ambitious at over 450 pages in length. I'm given the distinct impression that this is supposed to be a "young adult" novel on the same vein as Hunger Games. I'm not entirely sure why this should appeal to young adults beyond the fact that we follow the main character between the ages of 14 to about 18.
A minor disclaimer here. I've only read the book once over the course of several months. I freely admit I may have some names and events wrong, however I'm fairly certain I have the gist of the story.
Oh, and spoilers for the entire story.
So the book explains that there are two parallel Earths. On each of these Earths there is an alternate version of each person. These two Earths discover each other and learn how to communicate. For a while they get along quite amicably, even having communication between alternates who often consider themselves friends of themselves on the other Earth. Then things start to fall apart on one of the Earths as things and people start to stop existing. This causes the two worlds to shut off from each other and stop communicating. This is called "The Silence".
The reason for "The Silence" is because the one Earth that is starting to fade figured they have gotten the raw end of the deal and have decided to invade and take over the other Earth. I suppose making friends with their alternates has the possibility of spoiling that.
Anyhoo, their idea of invading the other Earth is simple. They're going to take children from their parents and force them through these portals to the other Earth. Once there the children will undergo rigorous training to learn how to kill and become exactly like their alternates in these secret, off-the-grid camps. When their training is complete they'll go out into the world, find their alternate, kill him/her, and take their place in society in order to become sleeper agents who will later be the first wave of the invasion.
Okay, yeah, that's simple enough.
I have questions though...
Why do they have to train to become their alternates if they are the same person?
Well, turns out they aren't exactly the same person. They aren't alike at all outside the fact that they look the same. What's more, it's implied that the folks living on the fading Earth are living inferior lives to their counterparts, having less wealth, poorer health, often dating and marrying... different... people...?
Wait, what? How are there exact duplicates if people on the different Earths are living entirely different lives, having entirely different experiences, and producing offspring with entirely different people? Shouldn't they produce different children?
Are we going to explain that at all?
No?
Fair enough.
Alright, so we're introduced to our... um... I guess I'm forced to use the word "protagonist". Her name is Lirael and she was given up at birth by her parents specifically for this sleeper program. Which is an entirely different circumstance under which her alternate was born, who was born in a loving family in which her parents later died. I guess their parents decided to have sex for totally different reasons at the same time.
There's a running thing where you are expected to suspend your disbelief of the entire premise over and over.
Sigh when you need to, I did.
So we learn how she forms a bit of a... I hesitate to call it "friendship"... an alliance with a few of the other characters. I guess we were supposed to remember them, but I didn't really care enough to do so. It doesn't really seem important until way later in the book. At least until it doesn't matter again. The alliance falls apart in the camp anyway, since the people running the camp make them compete to this end. Cuz people fighting on the same side of a war probably shouldn't be on good terms with each other.
The part in the camp (or "cottages" as it's referred to in the book, even though there are underground bunkers and stuff. How did they build all that on the alternate Earth without anyone finding out? I don't fucking know) is fairly lengthy. It goes through her day to day life on this compound where they train to fight, often with knives. The kids are usually busted up and bloody due to the training, which means they should have a lot more scars than their counterparts, but that doesn't appear to be an issue so don't think about it. They also spend a lot of time watching monitors. On these monitors are video recordings of their alternates as they live their lives. They're supposed to learn as much as possible in order to fit in.
Their alternates are under constant surveillance by hidden cameras in their homes.
Yeah... um... How did...? Who did...? And nobody ever...?
Whatever.
It's also stated that the children are still vanishing on occasion, even though they're not on their Earth that is fading. This is going to be important later.
Nah, I'm just shitting you. This is going to be completely forgotten about until it's brought up again on the last page of the book.
Alright, so Lirael is a thoroughly unlikable character. In fact, the only reason I continued to read at this point was because I wanted to see her die. I get that she was only that way because of her training, but I still didn't care about her. I wanted bad things to happen to her.
Okay, blah, blah, blah, training, some bad stuff happens, and something about climbing trees that is presented as important but isn't. The main villain of this part is the character they call "Madam", who runs the place and on occasion kills children. Eventually we get to Lirael's "graduation" of sorts where she's tied up and has to get free before some other person who is also tied up gets free. Who is this other person? Where did she come from? I don't know. There's a gun between them and the idea is only one of them can leave. She succeeds and goes out and gets on a bus to leave.
Now... this is what the first part of the book is building toward. She's a 14 year old sleeper agent who is going out to find her 14 year old counterpart and murder her. It's as uncomfortable a premise as it sounds. A little girl is going to die so we can continue to follow this unlikable character's story. The scene is at least thankfully brief, with her almost losing to her (untrained) counterpart if not for some other sleeper characters that inexplicably showed up to help her.
They murder the completely innocent girl and bury her in the yard of her grandfather's home.
Yep.
And that's the end of the first part. Is the story going to get better?
Here we see the importance of shandification in action. Not mention having an internal logic that makes sense. But top all of that off with an unlikeable character and I can see why this was for sale at the dollar store. Was it self-published, too?
Here we see the importance of shandification in action. Not mention having an internal logic that ma
You know, I bought a book based on that exactly once and it ended up becoming one of my favorite series. Behold! The Warded Man! Also known as The Painted Man.
Why did this seemingly simple cover catch my eye? Well, as I suspected and confirmed via the blurb on the back of the book, it's about a guy with magic tattoos. Now, I'm sure this isn't the first time someone's written a book about a guy with magic doodles, but long had I thought about how awesome the concept was and this was my first time seeing it. At the very least, it might be the first book where the protagonist is the one covered in magic tattoos.
Anyway, great series. Highly recommend. Great cast of characters, all of whom have humble beginnings. A personal favorite was the young fiddle player who could control the demons that appear at night with just his music. Normal people need magic wards. This dude uses a fiddle. What a baller.
You know, I bought a book based on that exactly once and it ended up becoming one of my favorite ser
