Empty by Suzanne Weyn

 

Summary:

 

A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out...

It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be.

Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.

Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com

Length: 192 pages (Hardcover)

Source: Toronto Public Library

Available Formats: Print/E-book

Publication Date: October 1st 2010 by Scholastic Press

Last week while I was in the library I spotted Empty by Suzanne Weyn on the shelf and since I had never heard of it before, and it was a dystopian novel I thought I'd give it a whirl even though it's not one of my preferred genres thinking it would be good to give a new author a try.

I should have known that this one probably wouldn't end up being as good as I had hoped. While the novel sounded really good and started off very strongly by page 50 it started losing steam for me. I typically stay away from novels under 200 pages because the stories are often underwhelming and the characters are underdeveloped which were precisely my problems with Empty.

Like I said, Empty started off strong but the quality of the novel went down hill very quickly. For me Empty seemed more like a bland, 192 page long summary of a novel. The writing was very bland, predictable and uninspiring. It didn't hold my attention very much at all and I found myself having to force myself to focus and finish the book.

The idea of the novel was a good one don't get me wrong I just believe it didn't reach it's full potential plot wise and character wise. The Characters weren't realistic at all and I couldn't connect to any of them. The characters were in their late teens but the way they acted and exchanged dialogue with each other made set the tone that this book was more appropriate for a middle grade audience.

Overall, Empty was a good attempt and had the potential to be a very good novel but the fact that I couldn't get into the plot really annoyed me and while I didn't like this novel by Suzanne Weyn I'm willing to give her other novels a chance and this book just wasn't for me.

I would recommend Empty to younger readers preferably middle grade readers due to the simplicity of the story line and the maturity level of the characters. I can see this one being a hit with the younger crowd especially those looking to delve into the dystopian genre.

I read this book for the following reading challenges:

 

2013 150+ Reading Challenge

Not For Me!
★

 

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