America Pacifica
Author: Anna North
Series: ---
Publisher: Little, Brown
How Received: ARC
Eighteen-year-old Darcy lives on the island of America Pacifica—one of the last places on earth that is still habitable, after North America has succumbed to a second ice age. Education, food, and basic means of survival are the province of a chosen few, while the majority of the island residents must struggle to stay alive. The rich live in "Manhattanville" mansions made from the last pieces of wood and stone, while the poor cower in the shantytown slums of "Hell City" and "Little Los Angeles," places built out of heaped up trash that is slowly crumbling into the sea. The island is ruled by a mysterious dictator named Tyson, whose regime is plagued by charges of corruption and conspiracy.
But to Darcy, America Pacifica is simply home—the only one she's ever known. In spite of their poverty she lives contentedly with her mother, who works as a pearl diver. It's only when her mother doesn't come home one night that Darcy begins to learn about her past as a former "Mainlander," and her mother's role in the flight from frozen California to America Pacifica. Darcy embarks on a quest to find her mother, navigating the dark underbelly of the island, learning along the way the disturbing truth of Pacifica's early history, the far-reaching influence of its egomaniacal leader, and the possible plot to murder some of the island's first inhabitants—including her mother.
Got to page: 207
I didn't finish America Pacifica. Part of me regrets this because I am kind of curious as to see how it ends; part of me knows that I need to tackle the rest of my to be read pile before trying to finish a book I'm iffy on.
I got to page 207, which means I had around 100 pages left in the book. Normally I stop sooner if I'm going to stop, but I kept giving this book try after try before finally putting it back on the shelf. I know I'll finish it, just not now.
The thing is, this isn't a bad book. But as I've been reading it, I've been unable to connect to it. The world is interesting - I'm still trying to figure out how it works, but it's interesting. I like the plot; that's the only reason I kept giving this book as many tries as I did, because I was genuinely interested in seeing how it turned out.
The thing is, I couldn't connect to the characters.
Now, anybody who reads WORD knows how obsessed I am with connecting or liking a character; in a dystopian or a fantasy or sci-fi or historical, it's even more important because you need to be able to relate or like somebody who is in a completely different kind of situation than what you're in. You have no common ground with them.
With America Pacifica, I feel like Anna tried really hard to create a Katniss-like character. In The Hunger Games, Katniss is a hero who doesn't want to be a hero. In America Pacifica, Darcy is set up to be a hero who doesn't want to be a hero - but I don't particularly like her the way I liked Katniss. Maybe it's because I was in Katniss' head, maybe it's because I loved some of the other characters in The Hunger Games (Rue, Haymitch) whereas in America Pacifica I didn't particularly like any of the characters at all.
Final Thoughts: So though this is a did not finish review, this isn't a bad book by any means; I'm sure there are plenty of you dystopian fans out there who would enjoy it and probably like the characters better than I did. It certainly is worth reading for the plot.