read by Soneela Nankani
Unabridged audio (11:17)
2019 Hachette Audio/Little Brown Books for Young Readers
387 pgs.
YA CRF (I cannot call it anything else!)
Finished Sat. May 11, 2019
Goodreads rating: 4.05 - 2128 ratings
My rating: 2
Setting: Contemporary California
First line/s: "I strain to listen for boots on the pavement. Stomping. Marching."
My comments: Well, I'm going to go against the general flow of raving reviews for this book. I had many problems with it and I'm not exactly sure how to put my finger on all of them, but I'll try. However, I do want to say that the premise of this book is spectacular, and very, very timely.
I think the author tried, but her writing style and character development didn't work. And there were so many things included that were hard to believe and so many things not included that needed to be. (A few possible small spoilers follow.) Layla's insta-relationship with Jake? Smuggling her boyfriend in and out of a prison camp - more than once? NO adults other than an 80-year-old woman with any gumption to say or do anything? Spending copious time with a prison guard, including in a female prisoner's bedroom, amid cameras and drones and constant surveillance without ever being spotted? Unfortunately I could go on and on and I haven't even touched on the character development! Layla's (or the author's) long, drawn out thinking about situations actually work to slow down any action that takes place. Too much tell, not nearly enough show. Again, a great premise for a book, but its execution didn't work at all for me. Big sigh.
Goodreads synopsis: Rebellions are built on hope.
Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.
With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp's Director and his guards.
Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
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