This week for the #dystopianaugust read-a-long with Lenore of Presenting Lenore we discussed Robison Well‘s Variant.  A dystopian-ish mystery about a boy taken to live in captivity at a strange school where there is no adult supervision or caretakers.  You can read the first half of the discussion at Lenore’s which will post around 6am Eastern Time.

Title:  Variant [amazon] [indie bound]
Author: Robison Wells [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Publisher: Harper Teen
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Provided by publisher (via BEA)
Parental Advisory: gangs, violence, murder
Teachable Moments: gangs, teamwork

Audience

Michelle:
This was the first book that we’ve read that had a definite gender appeal.  This felt like a “boy book” for me to be sure.  The author tried to add in enough romance to open it up to girls as well but I didn’t feel like it was executed well enough to do the job.  Further, the construction of the female leads left me feeling disconnected.  One was very Mrs. Cleaver/Stepford in nature and the others were just kind of there whiling the time away and progressing Benson’s story through their own histories.  To that end, I don’t know that girls will particularly latch on to lead character Benson.  He’s not swoonish or appealing in the way teen girls like their boys to be, in fact, because of the plot he feels overly desperate and whiny a good part of the time.  Don’t get me wrong, I do think girls will read, and recommending it to lovers of the genre is absolutely worthwhile, but I don’t see how a girl who picks up this book will get past the first couple of chapters before putting it down.  Probably the best secondary audience for this is the adult YA reader.

Lenore:
I agree that this has boy book written all over it.  Benson is a very practical, no-nonsense character who is so obsessed with escape, he thinks about little else.  And everything he does, whether it is talking to fellow classmates, spending his free time, or trading in his credits, is about reaching this goal.  The book itself is the opposite of an emo cry-fest.  People die, but they are dispatched in such a cold manner and we have so little emotional connection to them that they might as well be insects.

Michelle:
Interesting point I hadn’t really put much thought into.  I mean, this disconnect and rigidity does go to some of the points we learn later in the story, but not having that emotional connection certainly drives some of why this book was middle of the road for me.  I think the ultimate revelation of who different people are and where their true allegiances lie would have had far more impact if Wells had created more of that bond and investment between the characters and reader.  Also, it likely would open the book up to a wider audience instead of just the action junkies.

Lenore:
The lack of emotional connection was something that kept me from enjoying THE MAZE RUNNER as much as I wanted to – and here it felt even more extreme.  Like in the MAZE RUNNER, I knew I should at least want to shed a tear for the fallen whereas here I never got that.  Of course, I think when you see it through the double lens of the boy-oriented action style + plot twist that we can’t reveal, the disconnect makes some sense.  Still, how much more powerful could it have been if Benson had really bonded with his classmates – especially considering that he’d never bonded with anyone before in his whole life?

Michelle:
I do think he bonded with several of his classmates. Particularly girls, but that bond lacked a significant depth for a variety of reasons.  This also goes to the allusion to romance I mentioned in another section.  If done a bit more emotionally I think it could have been powerful for every reader and created a much stronger investment in both the character and the outcome of the story overall.  I found myself rooting for freedom but not for Benson and that’s a real shame.  I’ll also throw in the question of how much more power as a potential leader would he have had if we felt more emotion and connection between he and us and between he and the others?

Lenore:
Yes, the bonds that he did form with his classmates were just too shallow.  I did root for Benson to break free, but I also rooted for him to finally find some deep bonds.  Maybe we’ll see this in the sequel.

Length/Focus

Michelle:
UGH, this book was about 100 pages too long!!  The first ⅔ of the book was spent pitting the different gangs against each other that when the big twist and really good stuff came a long it felt rushed.  This is another first book in a series where there is entirely too much time spent on the set up and not as much on the part that will really invest the reader and hook them in.  Now, having said that, I do think the twist goes to alleviating some of the concern of that but a reader has to wade through the endlessly repetitive chapters of the gang wars to get there.  Not only that, but given where the book ended all of the infighting, it seems to me, will lose it’s significance and importance.

Lenore:  
One word: Paintball.  There was WAY too much of it.  One extended paintball scene I could have survived – but three?!

Michelle:
Bwahaha!  There’s my hundred pages right there!  But, see, I’ve blocked those parts out.  After the first the rest were entirely skimmable so I just blazed right through to the better parts.

Lenore:
Oh see – I was thinking I might miss some important clue if I skipped anything.  One of the kids theorized that the games teach them strategy, and of course I thought then that paintball had something directly to do with the plot. And the thing is, Wells’ writing is slick and easy to digest, even when his subject matter veers towards tedious repetition. So it was less of a chore for me to slog through than you might suppose. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that there’s no paintball in the sequel.

Michelle:
Interesting take on the strategy and you may be right, Wells is likely to circle back around in book two to reference what was learned as part of all that paintball.  You just sparked a thought in my mind that could be a great point of further discussion.  Sadly, we can’t do it here for fear of spoiling the twists and turns of the story for other readers.

Variant was another read that didn’t quite fit the true dystopian genre classification but there was definitely enough to make it appealing to that audience.  I would love to discuss where it really falls with those who have read it because I have a definite opinion on it that ultimately alludes to the big twist if told outright so I don’t want to be spoilery.  Though a bit longish I do think this was an interesting read and I’ll likely continue with the second book to see what happens.