Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - Paul's REVIEW

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My Pre Reading

Title: Incarceron 
Author: Catherine Fisher
Year Published: 2010

Synopsis: Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside- she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know. 

Review: This was my second attempt at reading this book. The first time I only got halfway before I put it back on my book shelf. I'm glad this time I was able to finish it. 

It was hard to get into this book at first. My eyelids were heavy by the end of each chapter. But, once I got into it I really did like it. The world is so interesting. I was questioning what it was the whole time. Where is the Prison? What is the Prison?

Most of the sci-fi in this book is just stated and not explained. It works for this novel, but I like when there's an explanation for how something could actually happen in reality. One of the questions I had was how the Prison recycles the organic matter. 

By the second half of the novel, the characters become more fledged out as their secrets are revealed. There are a lot of big revelations by the end of the novel, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat throughout the novel like most current YA novels. 

There are small passages before each chapter that are interesting, but don't mean much at the beginning of the novel before you have context. 

I am interested in the sequel. The end of this novel made me think so much about the story and the world. 

Small SPOILER that won't make sense unless you've read it: At the end, I was hoping he still had the watch(my mind would have exploded).  

I like when books blend genres. This book did it pretty well. Sci-fi and fantasy. A world living in the past. Magic and science. I give this novel a 4/5. I recommend it to fans of blended sci-fi and fantasy series like Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire and The Maze Runner series. 

-PAUL