The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

At this point, I'm pretty sick of dystopian novels but I walked into this book not knowing anything about it. Imagine my dismay when I realized that this book was yet another dystopian novel. Although this book is technically targeted towards a younger audience (tween) rather than the young adult one, which is what I am most used to, I found the overall topic to be mature and the plot advanced.

General Summary:

Honor and her family don't follow the rules. Even her name is seen as broken rule. The weather on their new island is controlled by a big corporation and Earth Mother along with several other factors of their lives. Their life is supposed to be relaxing. But since Honor's family has never paid much attention to the rules, her family is at great risk of disappearing. And eventually, that is what happens to her parents so then Honor sets out to find out what the corporation did to them.

The newer cover (the one above) is gorgeous and once you read the book, it makes perfect sense. 

I have to say that I could hardly put this book down. The writing style is simple and straightforward probably because the reader is supposed to be younger. Chapter transitions were fluid and it was clear that Allegra Goodman knows how to write an entertaining novel despite the recent redundancy of dystopian novels.

But surprisingly, the part of this book that really kept me reading was the setting. I have never read a book where the main reason I kept reading was to find out more about the setting. The setting was like that of a tamer 1989. It was a lot like Big Brother while heavily focusing on the lower classes. 

The characters of the novel were heartwarming and her family was interesting to read about. The young but strong female lead, Honor, is remarkably young for someone who fights big business and corruption.

The only problem that I had with this book (although, some might say that this is a good thing) is that it didn't make me want to keep reading the rest of the series. While I liked that this book's ending wrapped up the plot pretty nicely, I felt like I should have been more motivated to keep up with the series.

Overall, I found it surprisingly good and even though I won't be reading the next book, it was nice reading this one. Let me know your opinions about it or whether you would consider reading it.