Those of you who have been following my blog for a while now (bless you, poor souls) know that one of my favorite "whipping books", a baseline for all I do not like about young adult sci-fi/dystopia fiction, is Rick Yancey's 5th Wave. I have ranted about it before ad nauseam, and it has been one of the few books that has evoked in me real, visceral anger in me while I was reading it.
Until recently, that is.
Before we get this slugfest going, though, I do want to make clear that I hate criticizing a book to death. As a writer myself, I know there was someone who--hopefully--put time, effort, and passion into their work, and I would rather write lavish praise for something I've read than put it through the wringer. However, Enclave by Ann Aguirre leaves me no choice in the matter. For pity's sake, the author is a New York Times bestseller! She has a degree in English Literature and is a fan of Doctor Who!
In the immortal words of Treebeard, "A wizard should know better!"
Yes, reading this book makes me angry. It makes me so angry that my fiancee will go on video calls with me just to watch me read it. In this case, I thank Enclave for strengthening our relationship, as my fiancee hasn't broken off our engagement after 1) seeing what happens when I get mad, and 2) hearing my terminal case of potty mouth. It's these kinds of stories that can turn a reasonable, levelheaded guy into the Nostalgia Critic, I swear.
Here's the quick synopsis: it's a YA dystopisa. Blah blah fighting main-character-girl, blah blah world almost ended, blah blah brooding soon-to-be-boyfriend, blah blah cast out of her society, blah blah wandering ruins. The blurb on the cover says this book is for fans of The Hunger Games, but honestly, I'm getting a lot of watered-down Maze Runner--if the main character from Divergent were the lead instead.
What's this dystopian world like? Well, this is where my first major criticism of Enclave comes in: hardly anything gets described. If Aguirre has a grand, breathtaking image in mind for her world, heaven knows she's not telling us. The book has two main settings--underground tunnels and overworld wreckage--but the few-if-any descriptions are all stock footage, bland and hard to visualize. The main character (whose name is Deuce, by the way) does not let herself go when it comes to new and unusual things, often covering them in her first-person narrative in a way that feels almost disinterested. I will give Aguirre credit: the books starts imaginative in the underground society's structure and rituals, but that all gets lost in the second half of the book when Deuce and her boring brooding boyfriend Fade reach the surface of the scorched earth.
Up there, our heroes even run into a gang--and all I know about them is they are 1) male, 2) rapists (sort of--Deuce remains unaffected), 3) they paint themselves somehow, and 4) they carry weapons of some sort. That's it. Their leader, Stalker, has facial scars that Deuce somehow knows are self-inflicted, but that's it. In my mind's eye, I've been picturing a roving band of creepy clowns, pies in one hand and knives in the other, and that image has never been contradicted. Plus, the descriptions often contradict themselves. Deuce can see the moon and stars on page 142 and, with no transition or explanation, it's raining on page 143. There's daylight on page 194, but--without a scene shift or significant passage of time--the sun hasn't come up yet in page 198.
Aguirre never milks a scene for all its worth. Major characters and supposedly surprising plot twists just come and go in the eyes of the tell-don't-show protagonist. This has been the case with nearly all the book's descriptions, especially in the second half; they come either too late or not all. I have a theory that Enclave's editor either gave up halfway through the book or, having been told this was book one of a series, thought he/she was done with the job after editing the first part.
There are a whole host of other issues I have with the book, including:
- Unrealistic combat (mid-combat reflectiveness, dumb banter, a slave becoming a super-soldier when she holds a club, and, I'm not kidding, someone wins a fight with a kick to the crotch);
- Zombies (yes, there are friggin' zombies from the get-go);
- Adverbs are friggin' everywhere;
- Deuce starts the book almost illiterate, and then--for no reason--can read well in the second half (also, in her narration, she does not know what "evacuation" means but does use words like "chagrined");
- Deuce and Fade are literal messiah figures, offering themselves up for friends and such with hardly any motivation or deep thought/conflict;
- Nonsensical character actions (Deuce and Fade are all gung-ho about the zombies getting supposedly smarter, but after their elders dismiss their report for no friggin' reason, the romantic duo seem to forget about the threat too);
- Character conversations, in the middle of which are paragraphs (FULL PARAGRAPHS) of Deuce monologuing for no d*** reason;
- Stupid and short-lived love triangles (Deuce isn't the only one after Fade's organic pogo stick, if you get my drift; she becomes a real b**** if there's a remotely attractive female within 50 yards of her man--but it's OK, because that female is usually dead within a couple chapters!);
- Secondary characters whose personalities and traits are boring and forgettable;
- Primary characters whose personalities and traits are boring and forgettable;
- Authority figures who are royal A-holes for no reason other than the fact they are authority figures;
- A shoehorned-in rich-people-are-evil message dropped on page 189 for no d*** reason.
There are more points I'm probably forgetting, but here's one more I have to mention; it's the reason I can never forgive Enclave even if it explodes into gumdrops or something. I refer to page 153: Deuce gets captured by a gang whose leader, of course, wants to have his way with her. He leaves her to a slave girl who's supposed to clean her up. Deuce sees this girl, bruised and quite obviously abused in every imaginable way.
What does she think? I'll quote the book:
"She left my hands tied. Smart girl. Well, relatively. She couldn't be too smart if she took those bruises without complaining, but as I knew, you got used to anything."
It was at this point I stood up and hurled the book across the room. There you have it folks; our main character, who has already been set up as a strong, confident woman in the vein of Captain Marvel, is shaming an abuse victim while knowing next to nothing about her. This book was written by a woman, people! What the flying f***?
I...just...RRRR.
(*bites book in half and spits out fragments*)
Deep breath...
I could keep ranting, but we're running out of time here. I will admit this book educated me to the proper use of the word "ahold"; I thought Aguire was using it incorrectly on page 193, but I checked a dictionary and was proven wrong. Point goes to Enclave there.
Final thing to bear in mind: I'm only up to page 200 out of 259. It's taking me a while to read this book, especially when I have to wait for my fiancee to be free for a video chat. However, I do believe I am far enough along in this book to give you my too-honest impressions. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll get sold on this book in the last 60 pages; if that's the case, I'll be sure to return and let you know the error of my ways.
I'm not holding my breath, though. Here's all I can say for now: hard pass on this book. After I'm done ranting my way through this first book, I doubt I'll have enough energy or interest to see what happens next.
***
Note added later: Nope, it didn't get better. A forced love triangle, spelled-out lessons meant for infantile readers, and a saccharine ending were but a few nails in the book's casket. To finish it off, even the author's note at the end was messed up. It added details that she should've conveyed in the book if she had any wherewithal, and she spelled the name of William Perry, Arctic explorer, as "William Parry".
So, do I still give a hard pass to this book? No. I say this book needs ripped from the shelves and burned with the supervision of your local exorcist, at least in my semi-professional opinion. Well done, Ann Aguirre. You've finally gotten me off Rick Yancey's case, as Enclave has taken 5th Wave's place as my official Horrible Book of This Generation.
I'm sure Yancey will appreciate your sacrifice.
