Sunday 1 January 2012

Review of All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin


Review of ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ by Gabrielle Zevin

Macmillan  Dec 2011  978-0374302108
 
            Whilst this latest novel by Gabrielle Zevin lacks the ethereal quality of her debut ‘Elsewhere’, the dystopian world of ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, where it is not alcohol, but chocolate and coffee that is prohibited, is every bit as believable.
            Naturally, any prohibition breeds a black market and organized crime, and the heroine, Anya, is the daughter of an Al Capone-esque gangster. She, however, is as resistant as possible to becoming involved in the illegal market in which her family trades.
            All These Things That I’ve Done’ fuels the imagination, as it allows the reader to fill in the superfluous details of day to day life in the futuristic world whilst it pursues the plot at a very fast pace. If conversation is a little forced, this is more than made up for by the strong atmosphere of furtive dealings and fierce loyalty described by Zevin.
            In the first book in ‘The Birthright Trilogy’, Zevin demonstrates the importance of family over love, and the difficulty of trying to escape what you were born into, regardless of how much you want to.
By Becky Steels

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